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Don't Leave Town Till You've Seen The Country: Te Anau
Just when they think it's all over.... Sorry, no respite for you, I'm back to my trip report. Leaving Invercargill, we drove up the west coast to Te Anau.
This drive is the Southern Scenic Route, and true, it was scenic, but OMG, the weather. Rain. Wind. RAIN. WIND. Annoyingly, it doesn't come out in photos: I got out at scenic viewpoint McCracken's Rest and the wind was so strong I struggled to get the car door open and struggled even harder to stay on my feet to take this photo:
It doesn't even show the wind whirling clouds of spray around on the sea. Take it from me, it was BAD. We diverted off the main route at one point to try and do a walk that features some huge totara trees in a forest that's never been logged, but after driving 20km/12 miles on an extremely rough unsealed road, there was a tree down across the road. Even though it was a rough drive it was still very beautiful and actually pretty exhilarating. It was nice to get to Te Anau though.
As Te Anau is a little town that's pretty much all about tourism, they've been very hard hit by New Zealand's border closure during the pandemic. One local told us that their normal population is 2,000 but since the start of the pandemic 500 people have moved away. It's really hard on them, and they have all my sympathy, but their loss is us local tourists' gain.
Most people visiting Te Anau are there as a base to visit Milford Sound, and we were as well, but there are also lots of fun things to do in Te Anau itself.
For example, we were excited to get a chance to visit the Te Anau glowworm caves. You take a boat across Lake Te Anau first: this in most places would be a destination in itself, but in the South Island it's just your standard stunning scenery that barely rates a mention:
The caves themselves are amazing. You walk in, then they take you in boats through the pitch blackness to the grottos where the glowworms are. One minute you can't see a thing, and the next you're surrounded by thousands of twinkling lights. And the underground river is not too shabby either. Because of the aforementioned rainrainRAIN the day before, the water level was high, making this waterfall pretty spectacular:
When you reach the glowworm grottos, you sit for a few minutes in complete silence, just letting the incredibleness of nature hit you in the face. Or at least that's the idea. With seventy people on a normal trip, the silence doesn't always work out quite as should. We didn't have a problem with that, however. On a boat built for seventy, there were only four of us.
Te Anau is also notable for having a takahe reserve. There's a lot of competition in New Zealand for most adorable native bird, but takahe, with their iridescent plumage and giant red feet, have got to be way up there. I was tremendously excited to see them, and I did get some shots of one with its chick, but it was with an unsupported long lens in the rain, so here are much better shots from someone else so you can see what they look like:
There are only 350 of these wonderful birds left. They're one of our most precious taonga (Maori for treasure) and it was such a privilege to see them.
Te Anau is also home to another one of New Zealand's official Great Walks, the Kepler Track. This is another three-dayer, and I didn't have time for that, but I did have three hours to walk in some distance and out again. The track wends through this kind of terrain:
Not only is it beautiful, you come out six times calmer than when you went in.
Next time: Fiordland and the Sounds.
This drive is the Southern Scenic Route, and true, it was scenic, but OMG, the weather. Rain. Wind. RAIN. WIND. Annoyingly, it doesn't come out in photos: I got out at scenic viewpoint McCracken's Rest and the wind was so strong I struggled to get the car door open and struggled even harder to stay on my feet to take this photo:
It doesn't even show the wind whirling clouds of spray around on the sea. Take it from me, it was BAD. We diverted off the main route at one point to try and do a walk that features some huge totara trees in a forest that's never been logged, but after driving 20km/12 miles on an extremely rough unsealed road, there was a tree down across the road. Even though it was a rough drive it was still very beautiful and actually pretty exhilarating. It was nice to get to Te Anau though.
As Te Anau is a little town that's pretty much all about tourism, they've been very hard hit by New Zealand's border closure during the pandemic. One local told us that their normal population is 2,000 but since the start of the pandemic 500 people have moved away. It's really hard on them, and they have all my sympathy, but their loss is us local tourists' gain.
Most people visiting Te Anau are there as a base to visit Milford Sound, and we were as well, but there are also lots of fun things to do in Te Anau itself.
For example, we were excited to get a chance to visit the Te Anau glowworm caves. You take a boat across Lake Te Anau first: this in most places would be a destination in itself, but in the South Island it's just your standard stunning scenery that barely rates a mention:
The caves themselves are amazing. You walk in, then they take you in boats through the pitch blackness to the grottos where the glowworms are. One minute you can't see a thing, and the next you're surrounded by thousands of twinkling lights. And the underground river is not too shabby either. Because of the aforementioned rainrainRAIN the day before, the water level was high, making this waterfall pretty spectacular:
When you reach the glowworm grottos, you sit for a few minutes in complete silence, just letting the incredibleness of nature hit you in the face. Or at least that's the idea. With seventy people on a normal trip, the silence doesn't always work out quite as should. We didn't have a problem with that, however. On a boat built for seventy, there were only four of us.
Te Anau is also notable for having a takahe reserve. There's a lot of competition in New Zealand for most adorable native bird, but takahe, with their iridescent plumage and giant red feet, have got to be way up there. I was tremendously excited to see them, and I did get some shots of one with its chick, but it was with an unsupported long lens in the rain, so here are much better shots from someone else so you can see what they look like:
There are only 350 of these wonderful birds left. They're one of our most precious taonga (Maori for treasure) and it was such a privilege to see them.
Te Anau is also home to another one of New Zealand's official Great Walks, the Kepler Track. This is another three-dayer, and I didn't have time for that, but I did have three hours to walk in some distance and out again. The track wends through this kind of terrain:
Not only is it beautiful, you come out six times calmer than when you went in.
Next time: Fiordland and the Sounds.