Tuesday, March 14 - Te Anau to Doubtful Sound

Deb here. We were up early, ready for our Doubtful Sound adventure. After eating breakfast in our room and checking out, we headed to the Fiordland Cruises Office down the street to meet up with our group at 9 a.m. 

What a wonderful day! At 9 we met a family of 4 from the UK (Tracy and David, their son Roo and daughter-in-law Emma) and the six of us climbed into the van for the first leg of our adventure. We  moved on to another spot to meet Sherry and Al, a couple from Delaware.  With 8 of us, we then drove to  Manapouri, where we picked up Jan from the Netherlands (who was traveling solo since his wife was ill), and left the van for our first boat ride of the day. 

I lost track of time, but the planning was well coordinated, and the next thing we knew we were on an hour-long boat ride across Lake Manapouri, with about 100 passengers. Beautiful ride across the lake and a smooth trip.

Once there, the 9 of us met David, our boat captain and shuttle driver, for a thrilling ride up and over a pass and down to the harbor to meet our boat. The only way for any goods and services to make it to the area we traveled through is first by boat across Lake Manapouri, and while tourists are whisked across the lake, a barge carrying machinery and anything heavy only crosses once a week. In the 1960's NZ built a humungous hydro power plant primarily for an aluminum smelter in Bluff, and it was quite an undertaking. We learned that the power plant is the largest one in NZ, and that the road we rode on was constructed at an astronomical cost (something on the order of $2 NZD/square inch). David drives the road daily and didn't waste any time getting us up and over the hill.

By noon or so, the 9 of us boarded Southern Secrets, our home for the next 20 hours or so. What a beautiful boat! Our crew was David (captain) and his wife Jenny (cook). Jenny and David are in their early-30's and were great hosts on their boat. Shortly after boarding we were shown to our cabins, had a safety briefing, and then ate a delicious lunch prepared by Jenny. Crayfish (lobster) tails, several salad choices, and warm bread. 

Following lunch we enjoyed cruising on Doubtful Sound, and then had a chance to kayak and fish. I kayaked and it was so peaceful and calm. We had a cloudy day but fortunately no rain, which is lucky for the sound. We enjoyed talking with the other guests and Jenny and David, looking at waterfalls, and simply appreciating so much wild beauty. 

John tried his hand at fishing and ended up catching 4 blue cod, 2 terakihi, and 1 ocean perch. The fishing was amazing, with lines going out and fish being reeled in. After a while David said that plenty of fish had been caught, so no more fishing! 

We also spotted a baby seal on a rock and had an albatross follow our boat for awhile. David cruised us over to a crayfish trap, and pulled it up with a bunch of crayfish inside. Unfortunately we learned that octopus like to get into the trap and eat some of the crayfish and inject poison into others, so a few of the crayfish had to be thrown back because they'd been munched on or were semi-lifeless from the poison. Who knew?!

After working up an appetite from our activities, Jenny had a lovely cheese plate prepared for us to snack on. And then there was dinner, which included all the fish that had been caught during the day along with a chicken mango curry, veggies, salad, and ice cream sundaes for dessert. All delicious.

In the evening we'd hoped to see some stars, but the skies were too cloudy. We all savored the solitude of being the only boat in sight on the sound. Our new British friends introduced us all to the game of "Articulate", a board game, and we enjoyed some great laughs. A perfect day on Doubtful Sound!