Te Anau Park

After our Milford Sound cruise we headed back to Te Anau.  Brady was itching to go fishing up along Milford Road so he dropped us off at the park and took off.  We were on our own for the evening and without a car.  After a while at the park, we decided to find our way to the Te Anau Bird Sanctuary.  We didn't have an exact location but a general vicinity from the information shop.  (That's the great thing about New Zealand... they have "i" shops basically in every town to give you info on the town and things to do).  It took us A LOT longer to walk there than we planned and then, once there we had a LONGER walk back to our rental house.  No pics from the bird sanctuary since it wasn't that amazing and we were TIRED and bummed to have only our feet to get us all the way back home.  We should have just stayed at the park.

Here's pictures at this really fun park.  New Zealand has awesome playgrounds.  None of that "your kids will get hurt on this so we won't put it in the park" thinking here.  Just Play ON!!

Link to Te Anau Park Zipline Video

Link to Te Anau Park Steering Wheel Video

Te Anau Glow Worm Cave

After our Jet Boat ride, we drove to Te Anau.  Te Anau is a small town on Lake Te Anau but is the stopping point/hub of Fiordland National Park and and a Glow worm cave.  We boarded a boat to ride across Lake TeAnau and hike up to a cave where glow worms live.  Once inside the cave we walked along a river until we got in little boats to see the glow worms.  It must be pitch dark and we had to be silent while in the cave.  It was very interesting, but we couldn't see the worms up close as we had seen on the Minnehaha trail.  We were glad we had done both though, the trail and the cave.

Ava, Alyssa, and Savannah in front of the giant Kiwi Bird at the boat dock before boarding our cruise across the lake.

On our way to the trail

Back on the boat after our hike/boat ride in the cave and two presentations on the glow worms.  Super interesting!!  They are such a unique insect.

The picture below are the professional pictures that we bought of our tour.  You can't take pics inside the cave because it is DARK and there is no way to see them up this close.

You can see the glowing dot on the above picture.  The back end of worm glows to attract it's dinner.

The trail inside the cave before you board the boats.

A waterfall inside the cave.

You can see on the above map where Te Anau is in New Zealand.

And the above picture is just a picture of a picture but had to include it because thee girls LOVED the poem!!  They recited it over and over the rest of the evening.  Ha!!