Ata Whenua: Fiordland & Seeing the Southern Cross for the Second Time

Todd and I took advantage of the last long weekend during our time in New Zealand to head to Fiordland.  Fiordland is so many things, and all of them are amazing.  It's a national park. It's the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Area, designated by UNESCO, and it's freakin' beautiful.  Trust me.  The pictures you'll see in these next few posts won't even begin to do it justice. 

It's best to just give you a quote directly from the Department of Conservation's website:

Fiordland National Park (established in 1952) is a vast, remote wilderness and the heart of Te Wāhipounamu - South West New Zealand World Heritage Area in New Zealand's South Island.  Southwest New Zealand is one of the great wilderness areas of the Southern Hemisphere. It is an area where snow-capped mountains, rivers of ice, deep lakes, unbroken forests and tussock grasslands produce a landscape of exceptional beauty. Some of the best examples of animals and plants, which were once found on the ancient super-continent of Gondwana, still exist here.

On Saturday, we drove four hours from Dunedin to Te Anau (Tey Aw-now), the town considered the 'gateway' to Fiordland...and really, it's the only town for miles around.  Te Anau sits on Lake Te Anau, a stunning lake surrounded by glacier-carved mountains (like all of Fiordland).

We arrived in the early afternoon, giving us plenty of time to head to the local cinema to watch Ata Whenua: Shadowlands.  Ata Whenua (Ah-ta Fen-ooo-ah), Maori for Shadowlands which is what they called the Fiordland region, is a film made by a local helicopter pilot and the location scout for Lord of the Rings.  As was explained to us, the local pilot wanted to make a movie that showed the locals and visitors the Fiordland he got to see everyday, particularly places that you would be unable to access without a helicopter.  It was stunning and got us pretty excited about what was in store for us over the weekend.

A takahe...only 350 still exist in the world!

We also stopped by the Te Anau Wildlife Centre which houses several native birds, including the 'once thought to be extinct' takahe.  It's an ancient sibling of the pukeko, my favorite New Zealand bird, primarily because it's bright blue and has the longest legs you've ever seen.  The takahe looks like a big blue turkey.  I took way too many pictures of both.

A pukeko...aren't they great?!

On the cruise to the caves

Early Saturday evening, we boarded a catamaran to head out on a tour of the Te Anau Glowworm Caves.  Although we've seen glowworms locally in Dunedin, we were excited to see them a) in a cave and b) while sitting in a boat in the dark in a cave.  Honestly, the coolest part of this whole cruise (having seen glowworms before) was the cave.  It was awesome! 

Apparently, this series of caves have been 'lost' for years, only to be rediscovered in the late 1940s.  The town of Te Anau hinted at their existence.  In Maori, ‘Te Ana-au’ means ‘caves with a current of swirling water.  The water was rushing through the cave with no abandon and in some spots, the ceiling was so low, we were practically crawling.  At the end of the walkway, we get in a boat and then, IN THE DARK, our guide pulls into this cavern covered in glowworms.  Fantastic.  Here are a few pictures from the Real Journeys website.

 

 

Sun had set by the time our 20 minute boat ride had arrived at the caves, so even everything outside the caves was dark.  Our ride back across the lake was in the dark as well. It was spooky cool.

After grabbing dinner at one of the local pubs so we could watch the end of the Highlanders' rugby game, we walked back to our hotel searching the skies for the Southern Cross.  I'd only seen it once, in Taupo during our great Kiwi roadtrip, and was having trouble finding it again. 

After (finally!) remember that there are two bright stars that (kinda) point to it, we found it immediately.  Our point and shoot camera is just fancy enough that it can keep its shutter open long enough to get a picture. The arrow points to the pointer stars.  The circle is around the cross itself which is lying on its side. Click on the picture to see a bigger picture.

 Tomorrow - Doubtful Sound.