Doubtful Sound Part I

We packed up our belongings and got some breakfast before heading off to Manapouri to join our fellow travellers on the Doubtful Sound tour. This area of New Zealand is named Fiordland due to the rugged shoreline on the west coast. The mountains in this region were carved extensively by glaciers several thousand years ago forming deep fiords flanked by high steep hills. Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound are the two main tourist destinations among the fiords in this area. Although Milford Sound is the more famous of the two, we were advised that Doubtful is less well travelled and just as beautiful and so we chose to tour that one.

Real Journeys is the largest tour company in the area operating dozens of tour buses and smaller tour boats, and two large overnight vessels accomodating over 60 passengers each. We were destined for the Fiordland Navigator which plies the waters of Doubtful Sound.

The journey begins at the wharf in Manapouri. After checking in we were herded onboard two small tour boats to make the 1 hour trip across Lake Manapouri.


After motoring out of the harbour ...


... we set out across the lake. The weather that day was completely overcast with lots of low lying clouds ringing the mountains.



This weather would unfortunately stick with us for most of this excursion. The tour boats have a small flat area on top for viewing and we made our way up top for most of the trip across the lake. This is the other boat whose captain was a bit of a hot dog.


Lake Manapouri has its own share of inlets and they make nice scenery on their own.


This mountain had a bit of an avalanche leaving a big scar on the face.


At the far end of Lake Manapouri the government of New Zealand built a hydro power generating station. The water from Lake Manapouri is siphoned off and through large caverns cut under the mountain the water drops several hundred feet to be released into the ocean. The power station itself is located 200 feet underground. I would have liked to tour the station but time did not permit.


One of the more interesting things about the Lake Manapouri power station is that the water consumption by the station is carefully controlled to ensure the lake levels do not vary in any significant way. When the station was initially proposed there was great public outcry as the original plan of course involved raising the lake level by 60 or 70 feet thereby flooding a great large area. Public pressure forced the government to revise the plan and the natural lake levels were preserved.

The delivery of the power produced had its own special challenges since the power lines must run over some pretty rugged terrain.


One side benefit of the power project was the construction of a decent road over the mountain to a deep water inlet on Doubtful Sound. This was required in order to transport the heavy machinery and transformers in to the construction site. The road continues to be maintained and Real Journeys run their buses over it to get passengers and supplies to the cruise ship on the sound.



Of course when I say "decent road" we are talking about New Zealand here, so in reality the narrow road winds back and forth from cliff edge to cliff edge with no apparent need for guard rails. Meeting buses coming the other way provides extra excitement.


The area is described as a temperate rain forest because they get somewhere around 5-6 metres (15-20 ft) of rain per year. Since the mountains have little soil the water runs off quite quickly after each rain forming numerous waterfalls.


Unfortunately for us, the region has been in a moderate drought for the last several months. As a result where there would be hundreds of large-ish waterfalls with the rain received while we were there, what soil does exist on the mountains was soaking up the moisture and the waterfalls were rare and somewhat anemic.

The bus did make one stop at a scenic lookout. The view behind me is the first arm of Doubtful Sound.



I am embarrased to say I did not take a picture of the cruise ship but here is a promotional page from the Real Journeys website about the cruise that has a picture of the ship.

Be warned there are a lot of scenery pictures ahead. Remember once again to click on the pics for a larger view.



Once loaded aboard we were quickly underway. The view is truly spectacular and well worth visiting.



We settled in on the forward observation area and had the bag lunch we had brought along from Te Anau.





As we travelled out toward the ocean we passed a pod of dolphins. They were a bit far away even for my telephoto lens, but here's what I could get.




We continued on for a little while with the amazing scenery passing by ...


... until we turned into a narrower arm of the sound.


Part way up the arm the ship was brought to a halt and the passengers were invited to participate in one of two activities. Debbie and I opted for the kayaking in favour of a guided tender boat ride. Because there were more kayak people than there were kayaks we ended up going out in the second, smaller group. This is the launching platform at the for the kayaks which is located at the stern of the ship, though of course when we were using it the engines were not running .


When our turn came we paddled along the shore basically from the avalanche scar on the far right of the above scenery picture down as far as the point of land in the centre.



I forgot to bring the GPS along but I semi-recreated the trip, so note that we didn't actually paddle over that point of land. I also wasn't confident enough about my kayaking skills to bring the camera along but as we steamed out I snapped this waterfall under which we kayaked.


Once dried and dressed ...


... we steamed out of the small arm and onward out of Doubtful Sound toward the ocean.




As we neared the ocean the ship slowed down so we could get a good look at a large cluster of seals that were lounging about on a small rocky island. At this point the rain was coming down in buckets so I was forced to dash out with the camera, take a few pics, and dash back inside to dry the camera off.




Apparently these male seals arrive a few weeks ahead of the females and stake out a little piece of rock. In order to defend their parcel of land, the seals must remain on the island until the females arrive, waiting without food until they have wowed a mate with their spectacular property and bred.

Following are a few scenery shots. This is one of the smaller islands that I thought was photogenic.


A number of seabirds were fishing around these islands as well.


Another desolate little island with some colourful moss and lichen.


We cruised around the islands at the mouth of the sound for a little while with a running commentary from a very knowledgable crewmember. We searched in vain for a flock of penguins that were rumoured to be nesting in the area and then headed back into the sound.


By this time it was getting darker and the saloon was outfitted for dinner. Debbie and I settled into a booth with our bunk-mates (a nice couple from Australia) and enjoyed the most excellent food that had been laid out. After dinner there was an interesting slide show in the forward lounge given by the same knowledgable crewmember. She gave a detailed account of the natural history of New Zealand and some of the current conservation efforts being made in the Doubtful Sound area to reverse some of the negative effects the human settlers have had on the local flora and fauna.

The ship tied up in a remote arm of the sound for the night and we were warned that there would be an early call for breakfast. There was a single sailboat anchored in the same bay which I captured with a long exposure image. It's pretty hard to focus without light, so please forgive the blurry-ness of the pic.


We turned in early as warned and spent an uncomfortable night trying to sleep in our hard, narrow bunks in the noisy echo chamber that is the steerage class sleeping quarters.

That's all for this entry. The second day of the Doubtful Sound cruise and our trip to Queenstown are next.

Until then ...

Don