Doubtful sound Trip

This was a spectacular trip and highly recommended to anyone that should venture to this part of the country. Since there were three of us we wanted to stay together in the same accommodations so we had to take a Quad bunk in the lower decks. Hos til style living which we figured we could handle for the one night.

Our adventure started off with a 2 hour drive from Queenstown to Manapouri the start point for the Doubtful Sound trip. Just the drive itself through the mountains and along the lakes was breathtaking. I could have stopped every 5 minutes to take another photo. They have some vast farm lands along this route as there appears to be a large valley running down between the hills.
Upon arriving in Manapouri we checked in and waited for the boat to return with the overnighters from the previous night. Manapouri Lake is also home to a large hydro electric dam that produces 15% of the countries power. They did not have to actually dam anything as the lake is quite a distance above the sea level and they built huge tunnels from the lake down to the sea level and have about 7 large turbines running inside the mountain.
Once the boat arrived we struck out across Manapouri Lake on a site seeing boat that took us about 1 hour to reach the dam. Once we arrived at the dam they transported us via bus across the road that the was made during the construction of the dam which was 22 km long and took about 40 minutes. Quite a ride down and up again on this gravel road. We reached the doubtful sound and were boarded onto the our floating hotel. We checked into our Quad share room and even gained an extra young lady from Montana. Two bunks on either side and very cozy. Turns out the young girl from Montana snores..oh well only one night.

Our trip out into the sound was very interesting. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy and the clouds/fog was low and made it hard to take good photos but the views were breathtaking. We saw from a distance in the water Blue Penguins swimming along. These are very small penguins that are only about 6 inches long. We travelled for a couple of hours taking in the grandness of it all and reached the Tasman Sea. Now the boat we are on is not designed for the open waters of the sea as it is mainly a flat hulled boat so the Captain only took us into the mouth of the sea where Captain James Cook had made his decision not to sail into the Sound as he felt it was to narrow and he may loose his wind and not be able to get out. Hence the name Doubtful Sound stuck. There are two rocks out to the south of the entrance called the Hares Ears named by Cook as a land mark for the entrance to the sound.
While out in this area we had the chance to observe some Fur Seals that were lounging on the rocks at the mouth of the sound. They looked pretty safe there to me as the weather would certainly protect them from anyone trying to get to close. Apparently sealers would come from all over the world including Canada at one time to hunt the fur seals.
We made our way back up into the sound and the Captain found a nice quite spot for us to Moore for the night. It is completely dark here by 6pm so there was nothing else to see at the moment, but they had a huge spread laid out for us for supper and it was Delicious. We took the opportunity to meet lots of people from all over and actually quite a few Kiwi's were on the trip.
At the crack before dawn the Captain fired up the engines which you felt immediately (0630 hr) and began advising us about the beautiful morning we had lucked into. The showers which are clean and private are also unisex so I had to try and beat all these Asian girls to the showers which are Unisex not not separated as to gender. I left the girls and the snorer in the state room and headed up on onto deck to grab a coffee and see what the Captain was talking about. He must have had good eyes as the only thing I saw was the Moon and stars, which in the long run I guess told him the sky was clear and we would enjoy the clear morning.

As the sun peaked over the mountains the scenery was breath taking with the low mist fog hanging around the mountain tops and sitting on top of the water. We had a great breakfast and then took in all the scenery nature could offer us. We went into one of the arms and when we came to the end the Captain shut off everything and we sat and listened to the birds and took in the views. To many photos to add into this blog.
On our way further down the sound we came across a pod of about 20 bottle nosed dolphins who decided to follow the ship's bow and put on a little show for the passengers. The Captain claims that he has not had such a good day for several months and thanked us for the great weather. The dolphins were very entertaining jumping out of the water and doing a little dance across the water for us. They stayed with us for over 30 minutes.
By 1200 noon we were back where we started from and headed back to Queenstown. If you ever get the chance take this trip as it is well worth the money and time.
We will be travelling for a couple of days and Internet may become sparse so see you when we see you.