Day 2 - Friday, 10 Jan
WANAKA
8:07 am
We left Wanaka at 8:07 am and headed straightaway to Te Anau. We thought to stop at Jones Family Fruit Stall in Cromwell.
CROMWELL
9:26 am
After driving for 1 hour and 18 minutes, we arrived in Cromwell. This fruit stall sells various fresh and delicious fruits to eat. They also had a tester to test the fruits. They were mostly dry fruits. I had tried the dry Apricots and Mangoes. I really liked the dry Apricots because of its wonderful taste. We had stayed for 19 minutes choosing fruits to eat. At 9:45 am, we left the fruit stall and headed over to our next stop.
FRANKTON, QUEENSTOWN
11:40 am
It took 2 hours and 11 minutes to arrive in the Five Mile Shopping Centre in Frankton, near Queenstown. I saw that there was a EB Games store nearby. I went there to check if I would buy any games. We stayed there for a few minutes and left the store. After taking a rest in Frankton, we went straight to our next place.
KINGSTON
12:26 pm
We arrived at the Devil's Staircase Lookout Point, where we could see a wonderful view of Lake Wakatipu and the mountains behind it. We didn't stayed there for a long time (10 minutes) because we had to get moving on.
GARSTON
1:14 pm
We stopped at the Honey shop in Garston named the Hunny Shop. It sells wonderful honey. We also had to taste different types of honey (Manuka Honey, Multi Floral, Wild Thyme, Premium Clover, and more honey products). We bought some honey to eat at home.
TE ANAU
2:56 pm
1 hour and 16 minutes later, we arrived to our motel, Parklands Motel. We had put our luggage and rested for a while because we are going to see the Glowworms from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. At 3:53 pm we set to the Real Journeys Visitor Centre, where the cruise is arriving. But we thought that it was too early, so we walked to order food in a restaurant. As we were walking to the restaurant, we went to a souvenir shop. We stayed there for a few minutes and left to go to the restaurant, which took 7 minutes.
After ordering the food, we went back to the Real Journeys Visitor Centre (4:37 pm) and waited for the cruise to arrive. This cruise will take to an island where we will see the glowworms. Sadly, we weren't allowed to take photos or videos inside the cave.
It was a 30 minute catamaran cruise across Lake Te Anau. The journey includes an exploration of a cave system only known by legends until rediscovery in 1948 by ---. This scenic experience was for 2 hours and 15 minutes (1 hour in the boat - return). There was an expert nature guide which lead us by path through the network of limestone passages within the 12,000-year-old cave system to meet the famous twinkling glowworms. It was an enlightening experience. The guide had warned us that in the entrance of the cave, we need to bend down because of low rocks.
After we went off the cruise, the guide tours us into groups of 10-12. I knew that there were lots of Sandflies, so I put on some Insect Repellent. After an introduction by the guide, we went inside the cave. He had told us that only have to bend down when we enter the cave. As we went inside the cave, there were low rocks. I had to bend down so much because I was so tall. Already, we could see lots of glowworms glow. The guide had told us from the start to be quite inside the cave. The guide told us that its tail makes the glowworms glow, which was interesting.
As we got moving on, we got to see more and more glowworms. There was water dripping from the top, which was cool. I could hear water falling from the waterfall which was awesome. It was also good that the path lead us to the top of the waterfall, it was high but the view was magnificent. We went on the guide stopped us, it was because we were waiting for the boat to arrive to see more glowworms.
After a few minutes, the boat had arrived, I sat at the front near the guide. The guide had turned off the lights, so we couldn't see anything except the shimmering glowworms which looked like stars. I went to another glowworm cave in Waitomo, near Hamilton, which was good, but this cave looked better than the one in Waitomo.
As the boat went slower and stopped, we could see glowworms everywhere, in front of us, behind us and on top of us. The boat slowly u-turned and went back to where we were. I observed that I didn't see any sandflies inside the cave.
When we got off the boat, we headed outside and went to see a presentation from the guides in the Cavern House and have some coffee, tea or water.
When I went to the Cavern House, I got some water and sat down to see the presentation. The presentation lasted for 5 minutes and then headed over to the cruise. As we were arriving on the cruise, the cruise had arrived at a fast speed.
After half an hour, we arrived at the shore. It was a really good trip seeing the glowworms. We arrived back at the Real Journeys Visitor Centre at 8:08 pm. We all were feeling hungry and we headed off to the restaurant. When we got the food, we straightaway went to the motel ate dinner.
We finished our food at 8:50 pm because we arrived at 8:30 pm. Half an hour later, we went to sleep because tomorrow we had a long day.
I hope you like my story of day 2 if you want to find out more for the next day, stay tuned to the next post.
