Doubtful Sound, New Zealand - December 2014

After finishing my ten day walk on Stewart Island I had few hours to spare before my ferry left for Bluff. Natuarally after ten days in the bush my first stop was the pub, but after demolishing a couple of plates of fish and chips and three handles of speights (the local beer) I thought that it might be best to find something else to do for awhile, otherwise I might be feeding the fish on the cruise back to Bluff. Wondering over to the Real Journeys ferry office to drop off my pack I notice that apart from running the ferry from Bluff to Oban, they also did day trips to Doubtful Sound. I’d been wanting to check out Doubtful Sound since my first visit to Fiordland years ago, and figured that this trip would be my opportunity, with Sam coming over in a bit over a week I decided to book it for a couple of days after she got here.

So, a couple of days after being reunited with Sam in Queenstown we were on our way down to Manapouri for our 10am cruise out of Pearl Harbour (no that's not a mistake). The first part of todays journey was across Lake Manapouri, New Zealands fifth biggest lake. I’d been here a week before on my Kepler Track Tramp, spending a relaxing afternoon on a beach at Maturau Hut on the north shore of the lake. Today was much more civilised however, it was nice to sit back and watch the majestic scenery pass by with The Hunter Mountains to the south and the familiar Kepler Mountains to the north.

The view to Doubtful Sound from Wilmot Pass.

Climbing over Wilmot Pass on the bus.

Soon we started up the West Arm of Lake Manapouri and the Manapouri Power Station started to come into view. The power station takes water out of Lake Manapouri into Doubtful Sound via a tunnel though the mountains, in the process dropping hundreds of metres and generating hydro power which is used for an aluminium smelter near Bluff (which I’m told uses Australian Bauxite).  We disembarked from our first boat here and caught a bus up over Wilmot Pass and down to Doubtful Sound, the dirt road that we travelled on was pushed through in the 1960’s when the power station was getting built. The drive over Wilmot Pass was in itself quite a scenic highlight, passing some stunning waterfalls, crossing some cascading rivers, passing the start of the Dusky Track (watch this space, maybe my next hardcore walk in NZ), and of course passing through the Wilmot Pass.

The water from Lake Manapouri pours through the tunnel into Doubtful Sound, on its way generating plenty of hydro power.

One of the many waterfalls cascading down the rock faces.

After checking out the cavernous tunnels that delivered the water to Doubtful Sound from Lake Manapouri we boarded our second boat at Deep Cove Wharf. We now slowly cruised our way through the sound making our way slowly to the Tasman Sea. Captain Cook was the first European to discover Doubtful Sound although he named it Doubtfull Harbour, named because he doubted that he would have enough wind in the narrow sound to manoeuvre his boat. Making our way back into the sound after our little Tasman Sea excursion the next highlight for the day was passing a large colony of New Zealand Fur Seals that were basking on the rocks totally ignoring us, there is something about seals that makes me want to take one home they are so cute.

Cruising out of Doubtful Sound towards the Tasman Sea.

Nee Islets.

Leaving the seals we now headed back up the other side of the sound, on the way we explored up the Crooked Arm of the sound, this was even more spectacular than the main sound. At one stage the boat found a sheltered spot and cut the engines for a minute, the captain asking all the punters to be silent for the minute and not take photos, the impressive thing was that everybody complied. The mountains towered hundreds of metres above us giving it a real feeling of being in a cathedral. On our way back to the wharf we passed by some Southern Rata, the New Zealand Christmas Tree, its bright red leaves in stark contrast to the million shades of green that characterises the rest of the New Zealand bush.

Looking back into Doubtful Sound from the open sea.

Some of the resident New Zealand Fur Seals.

Returning to the wharf we once again ascended Wilmot pass, the bus groaning its way up the dusty road. Back at Lake Manapouri we boarded our last boat for the day and set off on the journey back to Manapouri. The late afternoon sun lighting up the mountains gave us a slightly different perspective than this morning. On disembarking at Pearl Harbour we set off on the beautiful two hour drive back to our home base in Queenstown, even the drive was stunning, The Remarkables glowing in the late afternoon sun.

Crooked Arm.

Southern Rata.

That's Wilmot Pass ahead of us.

The Dirt.

We had a great day on our Doubtful Sound cruise, its a big day however, we left Queenstown before 8:00am and didn’t get back to close to 8:00pm. Talking to a lot of kiwis they all recommended Doubtful Sound over Milford Sound, I don’t think there is much between them, they are both stunning. It takes a little more effort to get to Doubtful Sound but you are rewarded by less crowds when you get there. We went with Real Journeys, if you’ve got a little more time and money they also run a two day tour where you sleep on a boat on the sound and have an option to sea kayak on the sound. Overall Doubtful Sound is definitely worth checking out if you have a day or two to spare on the south island.

Lake Manapouri.

The Kepler Mountains.

The Kepler Mountains, a week ago I was walking through them.

Late afternoon on Lake Manapouri.