Into Fiordland we went to experience Doubtful Sound. The journey to get there starts with a boat crossing of Lake Manapouri, than a transfer to a bus which travels 2km down a spiral tunnel to the Manapouri Underground Power Station, then over the Wilmot Alpine Pass and finally to the fiord itself for a 3 hour boat cruise. This is the only way to get to Doubtful Sound. You can’t travel there on your own at all. We had originally wanted to do an overnight cruise, but it was REALLY expensive and totally out of our budget. The stop at the power station was stupid. All the tours stop there because it is New Zealand’s engineering marvel. However, taking a bus down a 2km spiral tunnel was just dark and the power plant itself was boring.
Doubtful Sound only gets approximately 50 days of sunshine per year. The rest of the time it is a torrential downpour (like our visit to Milford Sound 3 years ago). As we headed over the pass, we saw blue sky!!! I could not believe it. We spent 3 hours cruising the fiord. It gets it’s name from Captain Cook discovering the fiord and making a notion on his map that the fiord was a “doubtful harbor” for his fleet.
Despite the wind, it was really spectacular and the waters were very calm for the most part. The only fatality was my lens cap, which I dropped and it bounced off the boat into the water. Doh!!!!! At least it wasn’t my camera. While cruising, we saw bottle-nose dolphins leaping out of the water next to the boat, a colony of fur seals, kea birds and a bunch of other birds. It was a good day, but a long one and we were both happy to be back in our little camper.
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