After leaving Milford, we arrived in a town I'd been excited to see since first researching New Zealand. Te Anau is pretty small, but it's located on one of NZ's largest lakes and is the gateway to the Milford Sound, so it's a hip-hop-happenin' sort of place. The geography of New Zealand is really difficult on much of the South Island-- you can't get to a lot of places directly since there's huge mountains in the way. So, while Milford Sound is probably only about a two hour drive away from Wanaka as the crow flies, to actually get there you have to drive 4 hours south to Te Anau, and then another two up to Milford.
One very pleasant Te Anau surprise was getting to see (stuffed) Richard Henry Kakapo! He currentedly resides at the Te Anau Department of Conservation office. Richard Henry was one of the last kakapo ever caught and evacuated from the main island (specifically, he was found at Sinbad's Gully in Milford Sound). A few other kakapo were found along with him, but they didn't live long enough to breed. The rest of the existent kakapo were found on Stewart Island, and have a slightly different gene structure. Biologists could of course breed the Stewart Island kakapo (though at risk of inbreeding), but there was a lot of worry that the Fiordland kakapo genes were lost forever when Richard Henry failed to breed. Until, well into his dotage (they guessed he was 80ish??) he fathered three chicks, and gave a huge boost to kakapo survival! SO, he's a hero, and it was so cool to see him.
I was really trepidatious about that climb, because, y'know, Chicago is flat and so I have never climbed 3000ft in a day before. Or probably 3000ft in my whole life, let's be real. But we DID IT! And not even that slowly! It was super difficult and super sweaty, but we were helped by the fact that the path was very smooth and not rocky, unlike on the Routeburn Track. We were also helped by the intensely beautiful scenery, which was largely beech forest and moss until the tree-line eventually gave way to tussock grass. it's interesting now to see how the scenery and forest evolved as we gained altitude. And there were some really amazing mushrooms. (Were we helped by eating them? I will never tell.)
The tussocks were probably our favorite part, though the Old Man's Beard that appeared on the trees as we climbed higher was pretty great as well. We also found out from our hut warden that Old Man's Beard is a lichen, rather than a moss, and is composed of fungus and algae! TREE ALGAE!
The cave was pretty epic for me, but perhaps not so for Jordan and Kara who are more experienced cavers than I. But they agreed it was a pretty good one. The Luxmore Cave is a limestone cave, and Kara taught me a bit about the formations as we encountered them. There are the traditional stalactites and stalagmites, and flow stone, and terraces, and soda straws (super thin stalactites that are hollow with water dripping through the middle), pillars, and ribbons. We got to see them all! We also got to crawl through some extremely tight spaces, and climb up into new branches, and wiggle our way really deep into the cave. I'll admit to getting a bit nervous that we'd have trouble finding out way out after we took an off-branch, but we were of course fine. :) I was also worried about claustrophobia but it didn't strike! So that was my first “real” caving experience-- before, I'd only been in big touristy caves like the Hannibal Caves and Carlsbad Caverns.
THE RANGER WAS MY FAVORITE PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE. His name is Peter Jackson. He is a tiny elf. He showed up wearing a wool sweater, shorts, fleece leggings, and socks with crocs. Also, he knows everything there is to know! We learned a lot about the local plants, and he pointed out many of the nearby mountain ranges to us so that we could get a sense of the geography. I particularly enjoyed learning about the history of the plants-- many plants that are found in New Zealand can also be found in a few places in South America, Tasmania, and Papua New Guinea, but nowhere else. This is because back in the day there was a southern Supercontinent called Gondwana. These plants are the ancestors of those!
We had a very chilly night (or at least I did), and woke up the next morning to terrible rain. We hoped it might clear enough to enable us to walk the hour to the Mt. Luxmore Summit (and actually be able to see something), but no dice. At around 11:30, we decided that the rain had subsided enough to allow us to start on our way back down, and away we went! It won't surprise anyone to learn that the downhill was much easier than the uphill, and went much faster. The rain was cold and kind of a bummer, but it didn't really affect us much when we got into the tree-line, and it stopped soon anyway. So even though the weather didn't cooperate, I figure we were well overdue for some worse luck, and we survived in good humor. :) :) :)
We got to see a Takahe!! There are very few Takahe left in New Zealand. I believe currently their numbers stand a bit under 400. Takahe were actually thought extinct in the late 1800's, until a small population were rediscovered living in the Murchison Mountains near Te Anau. At first, conservation workers decided to monitor the birds but leave them in the wild. Unfortunately, their population continued to be decimated by stoats (who eat them) and possums (who eat their food supply). When the numbers got critical, the department of conservation decided to step in with a more intense management program: Takahe are kept in the wild, protected somewhat by a vigorous trapping program; they are kept on predator-free offshore islands; and they are kept in captivity. Together, this should ensure the survival of the species! Which is great, because they are really beautiful and interesting birds. Like many native New Zealand birds, they can't fly, and they only have vestigial wings. They are huge! ALSO they are AWESOME.
We arrived at an AMAZING hostel (Haastel?), called Wilderness Backpackers, that has a greenhouse in it. It was practically empty so we had the kitchen and lounge/greenhouse to ourselves, which was a welcome change from overcrowded hostels. Haast itself is a super cute town.