January 8

I was awake at 0600, then up at 0640 and had a cup of tea, toast, a drink, showered and dressed. I packed, packed the car and we left at 0800. Before we left Queenstown I filled the car with petrol and we set off to Te Anau by 0815.
We arrived at Te Anau at 1030 and went to book our glow-worm trip (1415 cruise only had one space) for 1515 today. Once we had booked the trip, we went to the motel but were too early. The wife of the owner promised that the room would be ready by midday. To fill in time, we went to the DOC Discovery Centre for Te Anau and had a good look around. We went back to the cruise depot and booked our cruise for Milford Sound tomorrow and then went to supermarket and got stuff for lunch. Then we went back to the motel. The wife gave us Unit 3, but the husband (who had just turned up) grumbled. Our unit has one bedroom, a main room with single bed and a small bathroom with separate toilet. Fran made, and we had lunch, left the car at the motel and walked back into town. On our walk we found an extra supermarket (quite small) and many other shops including a bakery. At the bakery I bought a sausage roll (which, upon eating, was found to be good).
On our way to the ferry terminal, we walked around the town and then sat on foreshore. We spoke with a couple from Ringwood (Melbourne) and the husband had come from Altona Meadows.
Once we got our boarding passes for boat, we waited, and while waiting, spoke to a staff member Lynette from Invercargill whose parents were Dutch.
We all boarded the boat and went across the lake. We landed and had a short walk through to the centre. We broke up into groups of about twenty, walked into the entrance to the cave and rode right down to into the caves. We spoke with a family from Ireland while walking, but while in the boat everyone had to be silent.
We went through the caves (very interesting and different from Waitomo) and there was a huge amount of water going through (from rain). The caves themselves were dark (naturally) and had a large number of glow-worms visible. After going through the cave, we went back to the centre while the other people in the group went through. Here we spoke to a couple from Jutland in Denmark while having cup of tea and watching a Japanese guide (?) explain the glow-worms.
On the ride back there were quite a few showers.
Once off the boat, we walked into town and had tea along the way, including ice creams. Then we walked back to the motel and refuelled the car. At the service station I spoke with two Irish girls who didn’t know the fuel ratings (unleaded, premium, diesel) and who hadn’t ever filled a car with fuel before. Back at the motel we found the car next door had the interior light on, but despite knocking on the door of the unit, there was no answer.
We settled in and had a cup of tea. I copied and processed the day’s photos and summarised my blog. During the evening we watched “Whale Rider” DVD from office. After, we went to sleep.