Southwest Scenic Route

Swinging south and west from Invercargill, we took the scenic detour on our way to the eastern lakes and the fiordlands.


This is one of the longest single-span suspension bridges in NZ at 366ft, and it is over 115 years old!  The hand-cut timber deck is a nice touch.  The supplies were drug in by wagon and ship, and the digging all done by hand.  It wasn’t long before automobiles started using it, and it remained in active service until 1978.  It was built for 5007 lb-sterling in 10 months during 1899. 

At this point, the gale in my face definitely felt like it was born in Antarctica.


Just off our route was a limestone cave that we could take a 45-minute crawl/walk through.  The cave itself was not particularly unique, however it was home to a fair number of glow worms.  Native to NZ, these are actually the larvae of several species of fly.

Sure enough, after complete darkness had set in and our eyes adjusted, we could see dozens of light blue “stars” on the ceiling.  Our cameras do not photograph super low light very well, but you can just barely see the clusters of glowworms in this photo.


Here is what they look like up close.  The larvae secrete strands of sticky mucus which hang from the ceiling.  A organ in their tails emits a faint glow, which draws flying insects into the trap.  Once stuck in the mucus, they reel them in for a meal.  The brighter the light, the hungrier the worm.