Te Anau Glowworm Caves

4 April 2011

Wow.  Can’t believe it’s the beginning of April already.  While time went slowly in Fox Glacier, it speeds along here in Te Anau.  I’ve already been here two weeks!  

Yesterday I went on the Te Anau Glowworm Cave tour.  I was most excited to get out on the lake for the first time.  The caves are on Lake Te Anau but north of the town of Te Anau and on the other side of the lake.  To get there we take a large boat that goes really, really fast like a speedboat.  It’s a thirty minute ride.  

When we arrived at the caves half of us went in first while the other half stayed in the Cavern House for a presentation on the worms.  The caves are pretty awesome and it’s impressive that they’ve built all these ramps throughout it.  The entrance is very small and I had to stoop down very low to get in.  I bumped my head on the rock too!  So right off the back I had some issues!  

Our guide takes us through the caves which are beautiful and have a large creek running through it and forming it.  Eventually our guide loads us on these little square boats.  He climbs to the front and pulls us along on the water by cables.  It’s completely pitch dark and very spooky.  I couldn’t see a thing.  All I could hear was the rushing water as the guide forces us not to speak.

Shortly we come into a small cove with glowworms covering the ceiling.  They light it up pretty well and I could see the reflection of their lights on the water.  The whole experience feels like a boat ride at Disneyworld.  Except it’s pretty real.  But in the back of my mind I couldn’t help thinking that we’d be going down a steep waterfall like on Pirates of the Caribbean.  We didn’t.

We walked back out of the caves and I saw the man in front of me bump his head on the cave ceiling too.  I almost think they should make us wear helmets as we enter the caves at least.

Back at the Cavern House they gave us tea and coffee and a presentation on the glowworms.  I enjoyed this bit the most.  Frankly, I’d seen glowworms before and while it was cool to see them in the caves, once you’ve seen them you’ve seen them.

I learned that the glowworms shine light out of their bums to attract the insects they eat.  They produce this gelly-like thread that the insects get stuck to and then the glowworm pulls the thread of and eats them.  A moth could take a glowworm 2-3 weeks to eat.  A small sandfly could take 2-3 days.  The glowworm stage is the second stage of their life.  They stay in this stage the longest.  When they actually turn into a flying insect they only last a few days.  The chemical process that produces the light is a natural phenomena from their digestive system.  The glow sticks we use for celebrations imitate this chemical process.

We took the boat back to Te Anau after the second group of people finished their tour of the caves.  I think a lot of people on the tour really enjoyed it.  It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, it just wasn’t that exciting.  The tour is probably best suited for people who haven’t seen glowworms and won’t have time later on in their journey to see them in other places where it won’t cost them a thing!