After some overnight rain, the van had some trouble climbing the muddy incline out of the campsite. K got out and I took a run at the hill, narrowly avoiding spraying her with mud. The successful escape was in no part due to the reduced weight of the vehicle after K got out, but it was with a keen sense of irony that we travelled into town for a substantial breakfast.
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| The van at the lake shore |
With a couple of shopping errands to run in town, we decided to hit Fergburger when it was unlikely to be busy: brunch. No such luck; the queue was already out the door as we arrived. Fergburger developed from a popular hole-in-the-wall spot into the Queenstown institution it is today and opens its doors from 8:30 in the morning, and doesn't close them again until 5 o'clock the next morning to cope with demand.
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| Trust Ferg |
Having queued, we both enjoyed the enormous "Holier than thou" battered tofu sandwich with satay sauce, fresh coriander, salad and aioli, sat by the lake's edge.
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| Ferg me |
Overall, Queenstown is an odd place, feeling like a small Alpine toy town that has been deserted by New Zealanders and left to be run by foreign adventure sports enthusiasts for visiting foreign adventure sports enthusiasts. Everyone we met - from visitors, bar staff, tour operators, to owners of local businesses - was foreign (I appreciate this is an odd distinction given NZ's recent colonisation, but more people were working holiday jobs, as opposed to the established residents in any other town we have visited). This is not meant as a criticism, but it does give the place a strange Disney atmosphere.
Moving on, we rejoined the SH6 for the first part of the Southern Scenic Route. Scenic it was indeed, as we skirted the edge of Lake Wakatipu. We timed our arrival in Te Anau for the 2pm sailing of the Luminosa - a boat that would take us across Lake Te Anau to a set of caves containing glowworms. During the drive, the caprices of the local weather system meant that we were to set sail under a blue sky.
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| Lake Te Anau |
The lake and the 6.7km set of caves were carved by a glacier that has subsequently melted, while the limestone and sandstone rock continues to be sculpted by the slightly acidic water that flows through it. Only the first few hundred metres of the caves are accessible without diving into the icy waters, and it is in this darkness that the glowworms live and eat.
When hungry, there is a chemical reaction in a glowworm that causes a bioluminescent pale blue light, attracting other insects as potential food. The insects are drawn to 'fishing lines' that the glowworm hangs from the cave ceiling, which are laced with paralysing agent. Thus immobilised, the glowworm injects the prey with an enzyme that liquifies the inside of the insect, which is then slurped up. Among the insects that comprise the glowworm's dinner are sandflies, instantly placing it in the 'friends' list among geckos and bats, which both eat our other bane, mosquitoes. The eating frenzy lasts for several months while the larvae gather strength for metamorphosis into a fungus gnat, whose sole purpose is to mate and reproduce over the few days that they survive, having no mouth with which to feed themselves, before they collapse from exhaustion.
This terrifying tale in miniature was related to us and a group of wide-eyed children matter-of-factly before we embarked on the cave exploration. The display of pinprick lights on the ceiling of the cave, like tiny blue LEDs, was beautiful, like a star field, as we drifted through the blackness in a small boat.
Arriving back on shore at Te Anau, we drove the short distance up the Milford Sound Road to our campground for the next two nights: Fiordland Great View holiday park. This was a complete contrast to our previous accommodation, offering a clean and orderly kitchen and the most luxurious bathroom facilities (a hairdryer at each wash basin) we have yet seen, all for the same price. We parked in amongst 10ft hedges marking our pitch, but which created quite a maze for us to navigate after the sun went down.
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| Eat the rainbow |
K and I had intended to prepare a salad, but with the chill wind, this morphed into a ratatouille of buttercup squash, red pepper, and tofu, with tomato salsa and guacamole. We made ourselves warm in the van and tried to get an early night for tomorrow's trip to Milford Sound.
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