Te Anau Glow Worm Caves

Toitu Settlers Museum

It is raining this morning in Dunedin. .We have breakfast at our Airbnb and head out to see the world’s steepest street, Baldwin Street. We go up but it just doesn’t seem steep enough except for the driveway at the end of the street which was downright horrifying.

While heading to the Toitu Settlers Museum, I look up the pictures on line and John and I agree that we had gone up the wrong street.

We visit the Settlers Museum which had some interesting exhibits. The big tricycle was fun.

Steepest Street in the World

We decide to try and find the correct steepest street. As it turns out, it was the next street over.

The claim for steepest street is somewhat competitive. Last year we thought we were driving up the steepest street in the world when we drove up Canton Street in Pittsburgh (and let me tell you it was very scary). But according to Google Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand at a 34.8% gradient is the steepest.

We debate about driving up Baldwin Street. We see people walking the street but no cars were driving up it…too scary. Also the street has a dead end at the top so John would have to turn the car around assuming we make it up. So we decide to not make the attempt. We also don’t want to tempt fate given we are in a rental car.

Arrival in Te Anau

After looking at the street, we head off on a 3.5 hour drive to Te Anau. We pass rolling hills… boy, there are a lot of cows and sheep in this country.

In Te Anau we check into the Lakeview Holiday Park where John booked one of the many cabins. The cabins are tiny but cosy although bathroom facilities are a short walk away in a common building used by all the guests. John points out how he booked a slightly larger cabin compared to the smaller ones in our section. My man will go to no expense to keep me happy!…not

Te Anau Lookout

We drive to the Te Anau Lookout. The view is great but yikes, talk about windy.

The town of Te Anau is not much to write home about…mostly a lot of restaurants. We grab a quick fish and chip supper and board the boat to take us to the glow worm caves.

Glow Worm Caves

We cruise across to the other side of Lake Te Anau where we disembark. We meet our guide and are then led into the caves in groups of twelve. We have to crouch down for awhile when walking into the cave. Inside there is a rushing stream and waterfall. We walk through the caves on metal catwalks and eventually get to a lake where we board a small boat. It is total darkness like one of those deprivation tanks.

All is dark and quiet except for the blue/white glowing dots of the glow worms on the cave walls and ceiling. It’s alot like glowing stars or still fireflies. It’s actually quite magical.

Each glow worm larvae spits out a lot on long strings, then they turn on the light on their backside and go to sleep until they feel a tug on one of their strings indicating that they caught a bug. They then slurp up just that string and eat it all. If they catch a month which has a hard shell, they suck the insides of the month out through the months eyeballs…while it is still alive. Quite gruesome.

As I said, floating soundlessly through the glowing dots is quite magical. We are not allowed to take photos or videos so click here to see a two minute YouTube video of our tour. Also please note, the picture is not mine, I got it off the internet.

We head back to our cabin to do laundry…a necessary evil.