Trains, Gold Towns and Glow Worms ….

We’re moving west again, this time to Fjordland - and today we’re heading for an overnight stay in Te Anau. 

First brief stop is at Cardrona - famous as a winter ski resort, but we’re more interested in the historic hamlet with quaint buildings dating back to the late 1800s gold rush. We particularly like the Tesla charging point in the guise of an old petrol pump! 

Then it’s on to Arrowtown, along, it seems, with every tourist in the area! So many car parks, so few parking spaces - its popularity comes as quite a shock. It’s another gold rush town, its main street full of genuine and not-so-genuine old buildings all clearly focusing on the tourist dollar. We enjoy coffee in what was once the post office, wander up and down the street, pop into a shop or two then decide we’ve had enough. We find the far quieter nearby ‘Chinese Settlement’ far more evocative with the largely reconstructed huts and interesting explanations. I find myself wishing I’d stuck with watching ‘The Luminaries’ - Eleanor Cotton’s goldfields novel, actually set in 1860’s Hokitika. I loved the cinematography, but found the plot so complex that I gave up. Perhaps I’ll try again when we get home…… 

Our route means we can bypass Queenstown, but so many people have questioned why we’ve not included it on our journey. Our answer - it’s just too big and busy, and as neither of us is interested in the ‘adventure’ activities it offers, we opted for the quieter Wanaka. Still, we feel duty bound to at least see its setting and its views. And so we make a detour - but in comparison with what we’ve seen we don’t feel we’ve missed out not staying here, and happily move on.  

The mountains on our drive are magnificent with towering mountain ranges like the Remarkables bordering our route, but we have limited time to stop - and besides, the weather’s closing in. Kingston, however, is an exception - even though it’s raining by now. G has discovered it has its own steam railway- powered by the restored locomotive ‘The Kingston Flyer’. Regardless of the weather, we have to drive down to the tracks and find it.  Everything is deserted and rather forlorn, but in the engine shed, he finds what he’s been looking for. This grand old engine has certainly seen better days and looks as if it’s going nowhere (we later find out this is a second engine; the real one’s obviously tucked away safely somewhere else)  but G immediately reverts to his train-loving childhood and has to have his photo taken on the footplate! 

We continue to Te Anau where the theme continues; we’re staying in an old railway carriage in the grounds of Te Anau Lodge. It’s the quirkiest of places - an old convent converted to a hotel, with all sorts of weird and whacky stuff around. Obviously our carriage is one, but there’s a fair group carousel about to be transformed to accommodation too, and staff sleep in the converted church. 

Our accommodation is great fun, dating from 2012 with lots of original features, but now with a comfortable bed and a claw foot bath with shower in the middle of the carriage. We don’t have long to enjoy it, however, as it’s out into town to watch the film Ata Whenua or Shadowland - a beautiful film showing the beauty of Fiordland - before our evening boat trip across the lake to the glow worm caves. 

There’s no time for a meal today, so crisps and a glass of wine suffice! But the trip across the lake is beautiful as now the rain has vanished and we’re back to sunshine. The visit to the glow worm caves is fascinating, with lots of info about these strange little beasts which catch their prey on fishing lines of sticky threads - essentially not worms but the maggots of the fungus gnat. The caves themselves are full of rushing water - and I have a few uncomfortable moments when the darkness and the sound takes me back to Ron Howard’s film ‘Thirteen Lives’ about the rescue if the Thai schoolboys. But as always, the walk through the dimly lit chambers is more fascinating than dangerous. To explore the glow worm cave itself, we transfer to a boat and move though the chamber in silence and complete darkness but for the slightly squirming masses of bioluminescent light spots above our heads. Absolutely magical! 

We return across the lake in fading light, drive to the lodge, and have a late supper of bread and cheese and wine sitting in the train compartment seats of our carriage hime. It’s been a fun but full-on day! 

No photography allowed in the caves, so instead, my main today is a view from the boat across Lake Te Anau as a rainstorm comes in - fortunately avoiding us! In extras, collage of the towns of Cardrona and Arrowtown; G enjoying himself in Kingston, and our accommodation.