To answer a couple of questions about paragliding that came up in the previous post:
The pictures don't show the big semi circle of a parachute that is above us making for a gentle ride to the ground. While it is a bit like hang gliding (I imagine, never having gone hang gliding, as you can steer and ride the lift). It is done with a parachute, hence the name paragliding. To get airborne you take a few walking steps, then a few running steps, then a few steps that aren't, off the side of a mountain. It is very peaceful and I felt like what I believe birds must feel like gliding over great forests of pine, high in the sky.
Today we are in Te Anau and took a boat ride across the Te Anau lake to see the glowworms. Again a facinating and mystical experience in its own right. First we walked, then we took a boat in utter dark and utter silence to a grotto at the end of the cave. The glowworms entice insects off the river that runs through the cave by lighting a small bit of its tail and then capturing the insects in threads that hang from the ceiling. All the lights together in the dark of the cave fool the insects into thinking they are flying into the night sky. They fooled me too. I felt we had floated into another universe with unknown constellations gracing a distant black expanse. I can see why the Maori of old thought the place was sacred. I felt like it was magical. It must have been. My children were silent for over twenty minutes.
Tomorrow we are off to Milford Sound.
Cheers.
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