Doubtful Sound - No picture I have taken can do this place justice

A reasonably early morning and we left for Manapouri to connect with our ‘Day Trip’ to Doubtful Sound. The journey consisted of a 55 minute Boat ride to Deep Cove on Lake Manapouri, a 40 minute coach ride and then another three hours on the Catamaran in Doubtful Sound. The first boat journey to Deep Cove although beautiful could not prepare you for the rest of the day. When we arrived at the Dock we were then driven to The Lake Manapouri Hydro Electric Scheme. This required a coach ride downhill in a tunnel for 2 kilometres into the mountain to the generating plant. The generating station was created by about 17 different nationalities, but mainly Italian workers. The Hydro Electric plant provides a vast amount of power of which 85 per cent goes to a Aluminium Smelting Plant and the balance to the National Grid.

On the Coach journey you climb quite high over the Wilmot Pass. This road was used for bringing in all the Hydro Electric Plant equipment and as the road has a gradient of 1 in 5 it could not have been easy which is why it is the most expensive road in New Zealand.

We boarded the catamaran for our three hour Doubtful Sound tour and the views were truly amazing and something that Jennifer and I will never forget.

We were able to see Bottlenose Dolphins and Fur Seals up quite close. There was a pod of about 20 Dolphins, young and old. They were leaping and somersaulting in the air. It seems that these particular dolphins seldom leave the Sound.

The Fur Seals were on Nee Islets in the mouth of Doubtful Sound were they can be seen all year round. There were lots of them, large bulls and small pups as well as females. Many were frolicking in the surf while the others were basking on the rocks.

Then a large cruise ship the Sapphire Princess came into sight as it was touring just a small part of the fiord. These large cruise ships are great but in this environment they could not get close to the marine life and for safety reasons can not tour the complete inlet which we were able to do.

The mountains, trees and waterfalls are amazing and when you consider that this area of New Zealand’s South Island has an annual average rainfall of between 6 and 9 metres, boy is that a lot of rain.

We then headed home in the drizzle, it rains 2 days out of 3 here, then back on to the coach and another 40 minutes drive followed by another 55 minute boat ride back to Manapouri where we arrived at about 5 pm.

So back to the Motel, both of us felt hungry/not hungry so we walked the street looking for something light to eat and we came across a Chinese Restaurant called the Ming Garden that was quite busy. After having lived in Hong Kong for many years we are always very careful about trying a Chinese restaurant as we have been very disappointed more often than not. However tonight was the exception, as the food was really excellent and so we may go back again tomorrow! That says something.

It’s raining as I write this, Hey! What a surprise.

Tomorrow we are planning to drive to Milford Sound and this is apparently a fantastic drive.

Will let you know tomorrow so watch this space.

Note-Phanfare Photos will be fully updated in next 2/3 days when fast internet connection available