After returning from Doubtful Sound we were ready for a low key day in the remote town of Te Anau. We began by checking out a short section of the Kepler Track - one of New Zealand's nine great walks. Some day I'd love to return and do one of the multi-day great walks. I love the idea of getting high up into the mountains and staying in alpine huts but for now I'm happy to just explore along the edges.
This section of the Kepler Track includes one of New Zealand's iconic swing bridges.
It then takes you along a flat wide path through a beautiful, mossy rainforest environment.
Occasionally the path opened up to some river views.
We enjoyed being outside in the damp forest listening to the birds sing and admiring the abundance of plant life.
After going along with our activity for the morning the girls chose our next outing - a bike ride around town on a funky double bike.
Even in town we saw wonderful natural things like this beautifully graphic bush.
In the afternoon we headed out on Lake Te Anau for an outing to the Glowworm Caves. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any photos in the caves themselves but we did get a few good views from the boat ride.
The girls were nervous at first to go into the cave. It was actually quite dark, wet, and loud. The river comes roaring through the cave actively carving out the limestone sides. We walked on a metal walkway along the sides until we came to a boat. From there we turned out our lights and floated silently into the Glowworm Grotto where hundreds of tiny worms glowed in little blue green dots above our heads. They looked a lot like stars. The worms actually extrude sticky threads of silk not unlike a spider's web. The glow of their light attracts bugs and then the liquid on the threads immobilizes their prey allowing them to draw it up and consume it. We ended up finding it really cool.
Between these activities and some surprisingly great fish and chips from the local food truck it turned out to be quite a nice, relaxing day.
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