Of course, we both slept through the alarm this morning. We set it and double checked that it was set... but we forgot to look at the volume on it. Thankfully, Ryan has a tendancy to wake up early, and we only overslept by 40 minutes or so. A quick shower and breakfast later, we were on the road. Saw the sad sight of a restaurant on fire in Waihola. It hadn't been going for very long when we drove by becuase the crowd was still gathering and the fire departments hadn't had a chance to show up yet. As we continued down the highway we saw a couple firetrucks coming from the neighboring towns. The other interesting bit of our drive was travelling the Presidential Highway between Clinton and Gore. And no, I'm not kidding.
The country in the south is much more wild than it was up by Christchurch. The trees are no longer trimmed into hedges, and in a lot of places the ditches and hills beside the road are too steep to cut. It was a really pretty drive going from pasture land to mountains. The valleys are really wide, though, and still dotted with sheep. It makes for some really pretty pictures, and a beautiful drive.
Despite our late start, we checked into our holiday park around 12:30 and did some quick exploring of the main street before catching our tour. "Main street" is about five blocks long with our campground at one end, and the tour depot and iSite at the other. There are lots of restaurants and gift shops, as well as a supermarket, butcher, liquor store, outdoorsman supply shop, pharmacy, and a few other stops. Ryan noticed a pie place that he wants to check out.
At 1:30 we headed to the end of the street (after noticing that the outdoors shop had hiking poles on sale -- we'll have to stop by later, I want some for our hike) and checked in. We got to board and head out early as everyone was there on time. I have to say, catamaran is not my preferred way to travel. It's not a very smooth ride, despite the boat being fairly large (at least for someone who's used to her grandfather's fishing boat!). It did seat 60 people plus crew comfortably. After a 30 minute bounce down the river, we were herded along the path and split into groups.
Ryan and I ended up in the first group and were (almost instantly) off. Our young guide (I'd be giving him credit if I called him 20) gave us a quick intro before taking us down the paths and into the cave, pointing and calling out whenever we reached a spot you'd have to duck.
The caves were beautiful, and I wish I could have spent more time admiring them. The walk in was a bit hard, our eyes never really got the chance to adjust to the dark. We walked along a relatively narrow series of bridges and rock to get to a boat. Our guide squeegee'd the seats and we all piled in. Through some magic lighting (I really don't know how they did it), the boat was in relative darkness already. We were pulled a short distance along the calm water (though we could hear it rushing back by the "dock"). Looking up and around us we could see the little dots of the glowworms. It was like seeing the night sky from another planet. Very cool, but very short lived. I don't think we were out on the boat for even 10 minutes before being pulled back in. This time, our eyes had adjusted to the darkness more, and we were able to take in the cave itself a bit better. It was lovely.
Once back in the open air, we walked back to the main building for coffee and tea. Ryan picked up a CookieTime cookie that seem to be really popular here (we see signs at all the gas stations). It was pretty good. I'll have to try another to be sure, though. We got to learn a bit about one of the local birds that they are working to bring back from extinction (they had thought it was extinct until they found a few around the same time the cave was discovered), the glowworms, and that the place is entirely self sufficient. They produce their own power and water from a spring near by. Ryan went to check it out while I stayed inside and warmed up! It was a cool day, and wet in the cave.
A slightly less bumpy ride home (the wind had died down), we headed up top.
We picked up some groceries and a new knife (the ones that came with the camper are too dull for us to use -- of course, we're both used to VERY sharp knives) and Ryan made us some yummy lamb. Of course, we were using the dull knives to cut it, and I sent mine flying across the camper. Yep, the knives suck. Sticking to the drinking theme we started last night, we cracked a couple of beers, and I've determined that we need to pick up some Speight's Distinction for me. The two we picked up on our first grocery trip to try suck. Te Anau pretty much closes up at 5 unless you are shopping, so we had a quiet night in, and started watching Fellowship of the Ring. The geography doesn't seem so foreign now, but we haven't come across anything that really fits the scenery, either. At least not yet.