Te Anau

After our time in Dunedin we piled ourselves and our things back into Ellen and made our way to Te Anau. This basically entailed traveling from the east coast to the west coast. An easy task. We thought it was going to take us near 5 or 6 hours, but Ellen and I were a great pair that day, and we made it in about 3.5, I think. It rained for most of the morning, which made driving not that fun, but once we got to Te Anau it was just overcast.

The hostel we stayed at was very nice. We spent the afternoon reading by the fire, watching movies in our room (there was a tv), and eating... obviously. Te Anau is basically the town where people who are going to see Milford sound stay in. However, we had no problem taking in a nice lazy day.

Early the next day, Lauren, Emma, Anja, and I got in the car and made the two hour drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound. The drive is only about 100km and probably could be done in an hour. But there are so many scenic places to stop and take countless photos, that the drive is usually drawn out. We watched as the sun burned the fog off, uncovering beautiful snow capped mountains and the bluest sky you could imagine. When we neared Milford, we had to cross a massive mountain range. This involved very steep, narrow, and windy roads as well as a very long and sloped tunnel which was only one lane. This meant we had to wait on either side for the green light to go through, which came every 15 minutes. It was so neat as we were waiting... we were surrounded by wicked tall mountains on 3 sides of us... including in front of us, where we needed to go. Emma, being from Hong Kong, and a southern part of England, had never seen proper snow before... these 15 minutes allowed her to make her first snowman. He came with us through the tunnel. Once we were through it was another set of steep and narrow switchback roads which led us right into Milford.

For the day we had booked a cruise down the sound, technically a Fiord, and out into the ocean. All of these fiords (in Fiordland... imagine that) had been carved out by glaciers thousands of years ago. The history was extremely prominent when you looked at the cliffs, the waterfalls, the valleys, and how the rock walls went straight down into the ocean. It hadn't rained there in a day or so, and as a result the waterfalls we apparently not that spectacular. But if those weren't good, I can't imagine what the fully flowing waterfalls look like. What we saw was beautiful enough for me! Some were small and trickled down the rocks, others were MASSIVE and were throwing liters upon liters of water over the edge of a cliff and into the water. Our boat was small enough, and the water was deep enough, that we were actually able to drive the bow of the boat under one of these waterfalls. Big, thick raincoats were available and we all donned them and felt the cold water against our faces.

As well as all of the glacial formations and the flora, we also saw heaps of fauna. When we reached the ocean there was a family? of dolphins which, lucky for us, seemed to be excited to see our boat and they gave us a nice 5 minute show. As well as Dolphins we saw a group of seals all basking in the sun when we were headed back down the sound. It was surreal to see all of these animals in their NATURAL habitat, and not behind glass at the zoo. I think it's how everyone should see these animals... it's so much more breath-taking and I'm very lucky to have seen them this way.

After our cruise we decided to do some of the nature walks on the road back to Te Anau. One was very short but brought us to these amazingly beautiful falls that were created from water carving tons of intricate holes out of the rock. It almost looked like a 40 foot drop of Swiss Cheese. It was incredibly spectacular, and sadly my pictures don't do it ANY sort of justice. The second walk we took was a lot longer, but it brought us through a section of the rain forest and explained the different types of trees. The walk took us to the edge of a small lake, and along the river leading out of the lake. The water, like everywhere else, was SOOO clear! The girls continued down the trail a bit, while I was taking photos of the lake. At this point a few birds decided to fly around and check me out. I tried calling them (like I know how to call birds) and one decided to take some interest in my Red Danskos. He came over, right to my feet, and started pecking away at my shoes. At one point, he even was standing on them. I got millions of pictures, and he didn't seem to be afraid of me as I moved around. I tried to get him to sit on my hand, and I could tell that he wanted to do it, but was slightly apprehensive. Nonetheless, I have a friend in those woods.

When we got back to Te Anau, we had to switch hostels, because the YHA we were staying in the night before was full this night. We moved to a hostel on the main drag which was on the lake in Te Anau. We renamed this hostel, "The Holocaustel." When we booked we were told our room had it's own kitchen and bathroom. This really excited us, until we saw that the kitchen was extremely small, had maybe one pot and pan, a spoon or two, and maybe a plate. Okay, perhaps the supplies weren't that meager... but I'm creating an image. Also, we couldn't get the heater to work for the first 5 hours or so, there was one ladder for the TWO bunk-beds to somehow share, and we weren't too entirely sure when the sheets were last washed. After we had decided that the room could have been similar to a concentration camp, the name was solidified when we noticed a giant decorative Star of David engraved into the cement brick walls. Thus, The Holocaustel.

That night, Lauren, Emma, and I went and did a Glow-worm cave tour. Basically this entailed taking a boat ride across the lake, and then going up into these completely dark caves, and taking a short man-powered boat ride up into a room in the cave where there are TONS of fly larvae which emit a green glow to attract food into their webs. They basically have the same glowing process as a lightning bug. Once in the boat, we had to be completely silent and have no lights on us, as to not scare the glow-worms. It was so incredible to enter the chamber of the cave with the worms. It was basically like looking at a sky of green stars. On the boat ride back to Te Anau, we were on the top deck (very windy and cold) but the stars were too radiant to not enjoy. One of the crew helped us learn how to spot the Southern Cross, which is a constellation that can only be seen in the southern hemisphere. That was the perfect end to the most magnificent day.