Our last morning in Queenstown. The cleaners were knocking on our door at 9.45am even though we had until 10am to vacate. We explored Queenstown Gardens, working up an appetite to eat an early lunch from Fergburger (much to Ross’ horror that we couldn’t leave the town until we had one!). The Gardens are beautiful, just like everywhere else we look. Tim thinks it will be strange to go home and not see snow-covered mountains constantly surrounding us.

The first pic above of the creek is my new favourite, my next screen saver! After exploring for a while, Ross took four kids to buy petrol, while Abi, Zac and I purchased some fudge from the Remarkable Sweet Shop and lined up at Fergburger…..at 10.45am….. We were back at the bus with burgers and fries and onion rings and aioli by 11.15!! The only time I have ever banned my children from eating fruit for morning tea because I am about to make them eat burgers and fries…..#proudparentingmoment……. It was so worth it though, everyone agreed it was all delicious.

We finally departed Queenstown 😢 for Te Anau, along the same windy roads I “survived” earlier this week. There really are very few options to stop between these two towns. But it’s ok, I didn’t need to! We reached Te Anau just before 2pm, grabbed a snack from the bakery and a coffee, and checked in to our hotel. There was a 32 minute presentation on the Fiordland at the local cinema, but no one else was keen (at $10 a ticket I was ok with that, I might just purchase the DVD for $30 if I can find it…).

At 4.30pm we joined the Real Journeys Glowworm Caves tour, which involved a boat ride to the caves, and then a walk and boat ride inside the caves. No photography allowed, so this was my last pic for the day. (We really don’t favour Sam and Belle, they are just always ready to pose!)

Everyone loved the glow worm tour, which included a video presentation and lecture when we returned to the Visitor Centre about the national park surrounding us and more in depth info about the life cycle of glow worms. 45mins was long enough in the caves for me though, it was pitch black most of the time and the constant thundering sound of rushing water reminded me of how having lots of children has weakened my bladder! 😉

We were back in Te Anau exploring the main street by 6.45pm. We ended up in a local restaurant for dinner called The Ranch, full of John Wayne pics and country and western music!, then returned to our hotel for a spa and sauna before bed. The spa was the hottest we have ever felt, so now there are a lot of red-faced children sleeping on top of their blankets!