NZ 2023 Day 4: Queenstown to Te Anau
DAY 4: 27 NOV 2023
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| Shotover river |
Our itinerary for the day was pretty chill!
We just needed to be in Te Anau by 3.30pm as we booked a glowworm cave tour.
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| Morning view from our balcony |
We bade farewell to Earnslaw lodge and drove to Shotover Jet for our jetboat ride!
I pre-booked a 2 activity Klook pass for S$185.
I redeemed the jetboat ride and Milford Sound cruise using this pass which was cost saving.
Shotover Jet is the only company licensed to operate along the shotover river.
We were booked for 10.30am and each slot has 2 jetboats running at the same time.
The ride takes about 25 minutes and passes the narrow shotover canyon.
As we were probably getting wet, we wore water resistant clothing and shoes.
We left all our belongings in the car and only brought along our phones, wallet and car key which were safely secured in their lockers.
There was a sign which stated no phones allowed on the boat but many still brought their phones along.
The man seated on the same row as us managed to take videos during certain segments of the ride including the 360 turn.
He is super amazing!
Kudos to him.
We were sorted into either boat 1 or 2 based on our reservation.
We got sorted to boat 1 and we took the last row which gave us a slightly elevated view.
Zhi Sheng took the outermost seat because I thought I might fly out of the boat haha.
The ride was thrilling and super fun!
There were a few stops along the way to wait for the second boat and the skipper shared more about jetboats and the shotover river.
My favourite parts of the ride are definitely the 360 turns and passing the canyons.
I highly recommend this jetboat ride if you are in Queenstown and don't suffer from severe motion sickness.
After the ride, we took some time to get changed before starting our drive to Te Anau.
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| Devil's Staircase Lookout Point |
We stopped at the devil's staircase lookout point along the way.
Tranquil waters and clouds lingered above the mountains were seen from the lookout point.
From this lookout point, we drove to the small town, Garston.
This town has a quaint family-owned honey store called Garston hunny shop.
We got to taste different types of honey which were harvested from their farm.
The honey that caught our attention was the wild forest honey.
The taste is so unique and unfamiliar.
The both of us bagged a bottle of that home.
After a quick honey shopping, we drove to another small town, Athol, to have lunch.
Although the cafe we were headed to changed their name to Athol Cafe, we assumed the menu remained the same.
So the both of us were kind of expecting fish and chips.
But nope.
Fish and chips were not on the menu at all.
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| All day omelette |
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| Falafel hoagie |
I got the falafel hoagie while Zhi Sheng got the all day omelette.
To my surprise, the falafel hoagie was yummy!
The greek yoghurt sauce paired well with falafel and the bun was soft and spongy.
After lunch, we drove to Mossburn to refuel once again.
This time we refueled at NPD Mossburn station which is known for their low-cost petrol prices.
We continued our drive to Te Anau and finally arrived at our accommodation for the night.
Te Anau holiday park is 10 minutes away from the main stretch of restaurants.
Basically a holiday park caters to a mix of holiday goers, from campervans to people who prefer to stay in private studios.
This was also Zhi Sheng's first holiday park experience.
Our studio was located on the other end of the holiday park and our parking lot was just adjacent to our room which was super convenient.
The holiday park had a free sauna which we were unable to experience due to time constraint.
They also have a pay per use hot tub for 30 NZD!
Our stay costs S$130 a night.
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| Te Anau Glowworm Caves Tickets |
After settling our luggages, we took a short walk to Real NZ's visitor centre to check into our glowworm cave tour!
I booked the tour on Klook and paid S$83 per pax.
We booked the 4.30pm tour and in order to get to the caves, we had to take a 30 minutes boat ride.
When we arrived on the island, the guides quickly split us into groups of 12.
We were assigned a guide and he briefed us about the safety rules before we headed into the cave.
Photography is not allowed in the cave as the lights will cause disturbance to the tour experience.
As we walked deeper into the cave, our eyes started adjusting to the darkness and we could spot some glowworms on the ceiling.
We also saw stalactites and stalagmites inside the cave.
Then we came to a small jetty where our group was ushered into a small boat which would bring us to larger clusters of glowworms in total darkness.
There were ropes to demarcate the route and our guide used those ropes to slowly move the boat.
During the short boat ride, we managed to see clusters of glowworms.
However, the experience was underwhelming as I expected larger clusters of them.
Zhi Sheng said the Waitomo glowworm caves were much better.
After the boat ride, we slowly made our way out of the cave and had some refreshments while the guides shared some educational information about glowworms.
Thereafter, we were back on the big boat cruising back to Te Anau.
We arrived back at around 6.30pm and decided to enter Four Square supermarket to get some breakfast supplies.
Little did we know that we were in for a challenge.
Our intended dinner place still had available seating but it was too pricey to dine there.
We headed back to the main stretch of restaurants, trying our luck at each restaurant.
To our dismay, the wait time was at least an hour at every restaurant.
So, we settled for our second last resort: Te Anau Dairy.
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| Fish and Chips |
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| Chicken Fried Rice |
This restaurant does both western and asian cuisine.
As it is not highly rated on Google compared to the other restaurant, we didn't wait long before getting our food.
We ordered fish and chips and fried rice to share and they were both reasonably priced.
The fried rice was surprisingly not bad, probably because it was prepared by a chinese chef.
After a sumptuous meal, we walked back to our room and turned in early as we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.
And that marks the end of day 4!
I hope that you enjoyed reading our day 4 journey (:
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