It is not possible to drive to Doubtful Sound; one first takes a bus to Lake Manipoura, then a boat for an hour on the lake, going down the West Arm and then another hour on a bus through the mountains to Doubtful Sound, a fjord that opens on to the Tasman sea.
We were picked up from our cottage by a bus to take us to the first boat trip across Lake Manapouri. The driver entertained us (when he wasn't being distracted by a passenger who wanted to tell us all about the US) describing the area in a friendly and jokey manner, setting the tone of the whole adventure.
Lake Manipora
The boat trip also had a commentary keeping us awake during the safety announcement (I was trained in Italy. I'll be first off).
This part was not a cruise, we sped along in a high speed catamaran
Between the islands that add to the beauty of Manipora.
The lake has a number of 'arms'. Our destination was the West arm but we had time in hand, so we took the scenic route via the North arm to see this interesting 'spider' rock formation.
We saw the hydroelectric plant which provides enough electricity to power Auckland but actually powers an aluminium smelting plant. The plant was built in 1963 and the road that we would travel to get to Doubtful Sound from Lake Manipora was made as part of the construction of the hydroelectric plant. No one lives in this area of Fjordlands which is a national park, so the fuel for the boats and buses must all come across the lake on this barge.
Similarly, food and drink for the passengers on the boat, washing and rubbish must all be transported.
Buses were waiting to take us to Doubtful Sound when we reached the shore and we were driven through forests, stopping for our first view of the Sound.
This area of the Fjordlands is protected so it is not possible to visit without being organised. School children, around the age of 10, are taken on trips, camping and walking. They all wave when the buses pass.
We had 68 fellow passengers. Our twin cabin was on the outside, one of a row of 4. There were also quad cabins and a small number of doubles.
After tea and home made muffins, we were all out on deck in the sun and with blue skies, working on the photos of which we have far too many! We were expecting to see seals, bottle nosed dolphins, penguins, maybe a whale .... but not immediately.
There was no shortage of waterfalls. These are fed from a lake on high, which we couldn't see from the lake.
Here we reached a junction where we turned down crooked arm
This shows the different parts of the Sound
It was soon time for activities. There was a boat trip (Pat, far right) in a tender and
kayaking (John).
Both let us get onto the water to see the vegetation and rock faces close up.
This is a rata tree which grows along the edge of the Sound
The kayakers had paddled a long way and the tender boat occupants were beginning to be concerned that they had a long paddle back. Then we saw rescue at hand - the Navigator.
Those who had remembered their swimwear and were so inclined had the chance of a swim off the back of the ship before soup! It was 20 C in the water which was semi salt water and a brackish colour so that everyone had a golden body while in the water.
Dinner was served in two stages but in an unusual way, we all say down to soup before we were on duty photographing again - by now we were close to the outlet to the sea and it was seal time. A number of large rocks were covered with fur seals.
At this point we were out into the Tasman Sea and the weather was good enough that we could go along the coast looking for penguins. There are two sorts that live here: blue penguins and the crested penguins.
This is the more common blue penguin (the dot at 20 minutes to the buoy). We heard, but did not see the Fjordland crested penguin.
The coast there is beautiful with lots of rocks and small islands.
Then we had a sail put up which steadied the boat a bit.
So now it was time to return to the Sound, have the rest of our dinner while chatting to our fellow cruisers and anchor for the night in the quiet of the Sound. We knew that we would have an early call.
At 7am, we were underway when we were alerted to the presence of bottle nosed dolphins. As in the Bay of Islands, they were travelling with us, jumping from time to time. Sadly, we didn't get any good photos of them. We saw our most spectacular leap some 10-15 feet in distance but just caught the large splash that resulted.
On our way back to Deep Cove, we paused at the end of Hall Arm for a silent pause on a tranquil lake with good reflections.
The boat engines were turned off, cameras stood down and we stood in silence.
Before the engines were turned on again, the reflection was gone as the wind had got up.
We returned to Deep Cove for the return journey to Te Anau and on to our next destination.
No comments:
Post a Comment