Doubtful Sound

Doubtful Sound was undoubtedly (sorry!) one of the highlights of our whole trip so far. A “sound” is a fjord, of which there are quite a few on the south west coast of the South Island, the two most famous being Doubtful and Milford. We chose to go to Doubtful as it is less touristy than Milford, and it really was an “away from it all” couple of days. It got its name from Captain Cook, who decided that it was doubtful that there would be good enough winds to blow his ship out of the sound once he got into it, so he never actually went down it. He was probably right as the prevailing wind blows into the sound. We did an over-night trip on a boat called the Fjordland Navigator which was a 3-deck affair which could carry about 50 passengers and 10 crew. There were some 4-bed rooms, but I had decided to spoil us, so we had a double room all to ourselves with our own shower and toilet (which was a HUGE luxury after having been in hostels and campgrounds for quite a long time!)
We started out in Manipouri where we were picked up at the gate of our campground and taken down to the dock where we got on a small boat to cross Lake Manipouri (about 1 hour). Then there was a coach which took us over the Wilmot Pass across to Doubtful Sound where the boat was waiting for us. (if you look on the map, you’ll get an idea about just how far away from anything it is). The only reason that Doubtful Sound is accessible at all is that a huge hydro-electric station was built on Lake Manipouri and there had to be a road built to get all the equipment in. If not for that, it would still be a wilderness. The weather was absolutely gorgeous - the day before when we drove to Milford Sound in the rain, I had told John that the next day was going to be lovely (the power of visualization once again!) - and it was - sunshine, not a cloud in the sky (although it was still cool - Mark will see that I‘m wearing the blue hoodie [ONLY to be worn on Doubtful Sound] that I bought in Edmonton at MEC with him and Zoe!) The boat crew were really good, mostly quite young (although isn’t everyone now?!) - very pleasant and helpful. We went out of the harbour and down one of the arms of the fjord where the boat stopped and you could decide whether you wanted to kayak or go out with a nature guide in a tender (took about 15 people). We took kayaks which was great fun, especially as the boat followed us so we didn’t have to turn round and go back the way we had come! Some people went swimming, but with water temperature of 11 C, I decided not to. (John says he was tempted, but didn’t …..) We then went right out of the fjord into the Tasman Sea (which was very windy and cold) to visit a sealion colony. We got quite close, but most of them just stayed on the rocks looking like brown lumps, so not too exciting. Then back into the calm waters for an absolutely amazing supper, and a wonderful show put on by the resident pod of dolphins! There are a couple of new babies, the latest one called Piglet! They were leaping out of the water and just looking as though they were having a wonderful time. After supper, the nature guide put on a slide show about the geography, animals and history of the area, obviously a passion for him - he was SO enthusiastic! He was very entertaining and knowledgeable, with a very New Zealand sense of humour which takes great delight in poking fun at Australians!
It’s really hard to describe the scenery - it’s so majestic. The sides of the sound are immense mountains which are mostly covered with trees, though it’s almost impossible to understand how they manage to hang on to such steep slopes which appear to have almost no soil on them. But the cliffs are thickly covered with the most amazing trees which in turn are covered with all kinds of lichens, mosses and ferns - no wonder they chose this area to film Lord of the Rings! Of course it’s all rain forest which is very lush and you can almost see things growing. In some places, there were great gashes of emptiness where you could see the rock face. That was where there had been slides caused either by earthquakes (there are a LOT here, most of which you don’t notice luckily!) or by dead trees which fall and start a domino fall down the mountain. Some of the time the mountains were covered with clouds which just added to the atmosphere. And when we got up (early!) in the morning, there were lots of ribbons of clouds just hanging around below the mountain tops with clear sky above them - really interesting to see. On the second day, there was no wind and again, it was a gorgeous clear day, so the captain took us very close to the edge of the sound and turned the engines and generator off so we could experience “the sound of silence”. He had asked everyone to keep really still and not take pictures so that there would be complete silence, and amazingly all 50 people did exactly that! John and I get that “sound of silence” at the lake in the summer, but I imagine for many people, they have never really had to listen to nothing for any length of time (about 5 minutes).
We met a really nice Australian/Canadian couple, Liz and Phil (which she carefully pointed out were easy names to remember if you are a monarchist!) So we had some good company (and of course, we swapped e-mail addresses so Phil and John can exchange the many photographs they both took!)
So the whole trip was a huge success.