Blog Post 12
Woke up early and
made ourselves a nice hot breakfast (thank you Duke) and then made the easy
drive (only about an hour and a half) to a tiny town called Manapouri and
waited for our tour.
To get to Doubtful
Sound, we started with an hour boat ride across Lake Manapouri, followed by an
hour bus ride in a completely remote area to get to our boat (ship?) "The
Fiordland Navigator". Solid pouring
rain the entire time, but in Fiordland, that is a good thing - the rain makes
thousands of waterfalls off the mountains that typically dry up about an hour
or two after the rain stops.
We had about 68
people on the boat - the cabins were really spacious and we had a private bath
and shower. The Kiwis who run these
tours are amazing - everyone is friendly and all of the guides infuse humor and
history into their talks - everyone seems very proud of what they do. Refreshing.
How to describe
Doubtful Sound… Imagine mountain forests with occasional breaks in the green
where the trees have fallen down to the water creating a rock "path",
which is where the waterfalls tumble down the mountains. The first half of our day was a very spooky
grey - mist, low clouds, rain - everything was one color but very shadowy -
think of a pirate ghost ship backdrop and you'll nail it.
A few hours in, the
rain let up so we stopped in a cove for kayaking. Of course, the minute we get in the kayaks,
the rain starts back up again in full force.
The temperatures were not bad and we were well prepared, so it wasn't
cold or uncomfortable despite the rain.
Of course Damon forgot a change of pants, so he went out in his
"ranger panties" that happened to be stashed in his pack for
emergencies (think 1980's running shorts.
SHORT shorts). Made me
proud. After kayaking, they let people
jump off the boat and go for a swim - Damon went, it was just a bit too chilly
for me.
Post swim, there was
a lot of hanging out on the various decks taking pictures. As soon as we got out of the water, the sky
cleared up and we got sun, which gave the Fiord's a whole different look. We made it out to the Tasman sea, saw a bunch
of fur seals and some blue penguins, and then turned around. We had an amazing dinner and eventually
docked in a small cove for the night.
The sky cleared up and it was dark enough for good stargazing, and then
we went to bed - the overnight was so calm, you wouldn't suspect you were
sleeping on water.
Woke up bright and
early - they start the engines at 6:30am, and a delicious breakfast, and
started the cruise back - exploring different Fiord arms along the way. Everyone was on the lookout for the resident
dolphin pod, and (thank you very much) I happened to be in the captain's
lookout area (the "bridge") and I spotted the dolphins first,
informed the captain, and we bee-lined in that direction to see a pod of
dolphins swimming around - a few came close to the boat.
Rest of the ride was
uneventful - no rain (yeah) and we saw a few more penguins. Well, I saw some
ripples in the water and maybe a head or a tail feather - they are tiny and
don't like to come near the boat and mostly stay under water.
We are now on the
boat back to Manapouri as I write and hope to come across Wi-Fi soon so we can
post. More later!
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