New Zealand Day 6

Today was the day we had all been waiting for: Glowworm Day! We cleaned up and moved out of the hotel and then headed over to the bird sanctuary to use a little time before our ten o'clock trip to the glowworm caves. The sanctuary was nice, but very small. Mark got to see a few birds he'd been looking for in his book, though all of them were in cages. We saw a tui, which we'd seen in the wild of the Catlins, and Dad said, "Hello," to it. It said hello right back, and then continued into a long gibberish sentence. We were so surprised because it didn't look like the kind of bird that could talk. The boys talked to the tui bird for a few minutes. Then Dax decided he'd better try talking to every bird, because you never know!

We saw these paradise shelducks all over New Zealand.

Mark was excited to see the Takahe since they were thought to be extinct until 1948.

The Takahe is a beautiful bird.  

We had fun seeing all the birds at the sanctuary.

We arrived at the glowworm tour at ten o'clock. From there a large ferry took us on a thirty minute trip across Lake Te Anau (tee-AH-new). We were allowed to go up top on the boat, and it was going very fast, so the icy wind cut like a knife! Still, we spent a lot of time up there, surrounded by snowy mountains. Once the boat landed, we were led into the caves.

Mom is ready for another boat ride...she hopes! 

The boys love riding on boats.

It was super windy and cold on top of the ship.

Mom's hair was going crazy!

We have worn our beanies almost all of the time.

Family picture on top of the boat when it was stopped.

It is beautiful out on the lake next to the mountains.

Te Anau means rushing water, and the amazing thing about the caves is the river that flows out of them. We were on a raised walkway as we ventured into the caves. The water was rushing right beneath us, and there were a few large waterfalls cascading below us as we walked deeper into the cave. Finally, we climbed into a very small boat. This boat held about eight people. Then the lights went out and we were thrown into inky blackness. The boys were silent as we felt the boat pulled by hand farther into the cave. The tiny green light of the glow worms was all that we could see above us. There were hundreds of them gathered into different sections on the ceiling. At times the boat passed so close that we easily could have reached out and touched them, but that would have ruined the magic. It was like being in a starlit cave. The silence and darkness added to the experience. Afterward, the boys declared it the best cave they've ever been in, and they've been in dozens. After we came out of the cave, we had a short presentation on the worms and the reason they glow. They lower tiny webs and then use bioluminescence to attract food. They live in this stage for nine months before they pupate and turn into an adult fly. Once they are adults, they can't eat, so they die in only 3 days, giving them just enough time to mate and lay eggs.

Our tour guide showing us where in the cave we would be walking.

Pictures aren't allowed on the tour, so this is us winding down to the mouth of the cave.

There is a lot of ducking in this cave.

Mom did snap a secret picture of one of the waterfalls in the cave. The rushing water was so cool!

There was a small nature trail that we explored.

The boys thought this sign was so funny!

Mom's hair is loving all the rainy humid weather.

When we got back to Te Anau, our family was waiting for us. We grabbed lunch at Subway and then made the two hour drive to Queenstown. It was getting late in the day, and we wanted to ride the gondola to the top of the mountain. We were dropped off at the mountain and headed up. It was a very steep ride with just the five of us in our tram. We even spotted a few goats that thought they were mountain goats munching on the grass far below! When we reached the top we bought tickets to ride the luge. We each got three trips, and the line was long. The first time through they train you how to drive: pull back on the handle to stop, push forward to speed up, and steer. We zipped down the mountain without any crashes, though Seth had a little trouble with the steering. Mostly we suffered from freezing hands as the air was so cold and some of us didn't have gloves. On our second ride we took the fast track and everyone was out of breath at the bottom. The luges were so fast! We took our last ride just before the luges closed at five o'clock. This time Seth and Dad rode together and beat everyone down the mountain despite taking the slower track. It was so much fun that we bought some pictures from the day.

We have eaten lots of Subway and McDonalds for these two.

We stopped at an overlook on our way into Queenstown.

The lake and mountains were beautiful!

Seth was too cold to get out of the car for this picture.

We rode in a gondola up to the luge ride.

The view of Queenstown was amazing!

Queenstown is in a beautiful spot. Mountains and lake!

We had to squeeze helmets over our hats.

Dax is ready to go!

Seth didn't have gloves so his hands were super cold.

Dad had a blast on the luge ride!

We had to ride the ski lift up to the top of the luge ride every time.

Seth had fun riding with Dad.

Dax and Mom were all smiles in this picture.

Mark might have crashed right after this pic was taken. 

The sunset was pretty from the luge ride.

We had so much fun on top of the mountain even though it was so cold.

There were some pieces of art made from jelly beans. We were impressed with this one!

While we waited for our ride, the boys created some fun pictures.

Dax being so silly!

Seth is not going to make it.

Dad says Seth is a scary driver.

We finally made it to our hotel. It was a little smaller than the family-style rooms we had been staying in. This time we were all lumped together. We decided to walk to dinner, which turned out to be a good choice since there was a lot of winter traffic and parking was difficult. Not only that, Queenstown has a really nice downtown shopping area. We actually made four stops for dinner. Dad and his brother ate Japanese food, Mom and our the boys aunt ate Thai, Mark had McDonalds, and Seth and Dax ate Dominos Pizza. Since they were in the same mall food court, it wasn't too bad. Then Dad's brother treated us all to ice cream, except he had hot chocolate because he never eats ice cream during winter. We got back to the hotel early so the boys could take showers. It was one of the most fun days of our trip to New Zealand!

Seth and Dax ate their pizza while we wandered around Queenstown.

We splurged on the pictures from the tram because they were so cute.

This was our favorite activity in Queenstown.