Ok, Wednesday was a much anticipated (not to say feared) day! We flew from Auckland to Queenstown, then rented a car and headed out driving on the left, with me doing the initial driving. It wasn't as tough as I expected. I pretty quickly got used to seeing cars coming at me on the "wrong" side of the road. But I know we will have to stay focused on it.

The tough parts…

Signalling turns was tough. I kept using the left stalk, which runs the wipers, instead of the right stalk, which signals turns. I occasionally said a very rude word when I did that!

Exiting from parking lots. I had no trouble staying to the left on the road, but I kept pulling over to the right when exiting a parking lot.

Roundabouts were also daunting at first. The single lane one I hit right away was pretty straightforward – but the next one was multiple lanes and I earned no style points for how I handled it. It was made more complicated by the Garmin thinking there was a road coming in that wasn’t actually there, so the count of which exit to take was wrong. I finally got it right the 3rd time around - when Garmin didn't count this non-existent road! (Speaking of the Garmin, what a brilliant idea it was for us to purchase one and get the New Zealand maps for it. Street signs never tell you what road you are on here in NZ - you must already know that since you're on the road, right? And most roads have many names, not all of which are present on signs where you need to turn. The Garmin has been a real benefit to have as we move to a new place every couple of days. So whose brilliant idea was it to buy the Garmin? I think it was Rich's and he thinks it was mine! Isn't that sweet?)

So much for the question of driving here. Now on to our day...

The drive from Queenstown to Te Anau was lovely.

Yes, there are sheep in New Zealand. I promise this is the only photo we'll bother you with. We were surprised at the number of fields we saw which held deer, beef cattle, and goats as well as all the fields of sheep.

We are finding the people in New Zealand to be very friendly and helpful. We had trouble getting our Internet connection going in Te Anau. As soon as we called the hotel office, the woman from the office came running up to help, then she called their technician who came over immediately. He had them make another room available to us in case the problem was in our room, but fortunately it was simply a need to restart their router and all was well.

We got a kick out of using the free wireless in the town library. They have folks use it in the community room and there are lots of signs making it clear that the focus in that room is on the internet – "leave backpacks outside", “no charging of toothbrushes or razors” and similar signs. Of the dozen people in the room, Rich and I were the only ones over 30!

Te Anau is a lovely little town on a lake. We enjoyed strolling along the shore on Wednesday. Rich got a kick out of the huge Tasmanian blue gum trees. In the second picture below he is leaning against the lower part of one, and in the third picture he is sitting on the stump of another. They are huge!!

On Thursday, we took a boat ride on Lake Te Anau and visited the glow worm caves. I was afraid it would be very disappointing or very touristy or both. It was actually rather charming. Easy walk through the cave along an elevated walkway with good handrails on both sides most of the way. There was a fun “big people dunk” section at the start. ("Big people dunk" is how my family says "tall people need to duck" - based on what my nephew Kevin kept saying during a family outing when he was young.) The cave was nicely spooky due to low lighting. There was a lot of water running in the river through the cave. It's a young cave, so there were no stalactites etc. We got on a boat at the end of the walk into the cave and were pulled by the guide through pitch dark corridors and rooms with hundreds of glow worms on the walls and ceilings. These are bizarre critters.  They glow all the time to attract food, which gets caught on sticky blobs on "fishing lines" the glow worms dangle.  When a bug gets caught, the worm slides down the fishing line to eat it.  They are also quite aggressive, chasing other worms away from their territory.  It was fun to see them.  Sure hope it wasn’t just blue Christmas lights from WalMart! (Rich is also a cynic, but being more high-tech than I am, he hoped the lights weren't fiber optics.) Here is Rich coming out of the glow worm cave.

Place names in New Zealand are fascinating, showing strong signs of the varied ethnicities of the folks who have settled here. There are many Maori names, of course, and many English ones as well. This stream is "Tunnel Burn" - showing some of the Scottish heritage of the area.

At dinner at Bailiez in Te Anau I discovered the New Zealand "chatter platter." It's a plate which can be appetizers for several people or dinner for one. Blue cheese, brie, camembert, lox, salami, thinly sliced ham, olive oil with reduction of balsamic vinegar, hummus (double portion since I didn’t want the mussels that usually come with it), pesto (best I’ve ever had!), olives, salad, crackers, soft bread, thin toasted bread. I had another one later in the week at Olive's in Te Anau - slightly different things on the platter, but much the same idea. Both were wonderful, and I took home leftovers from both for noshing later.