Day 3: Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Boat trip on Doubtful Sound

Today we took a Fiordland Travel boat tour along Doubtful Sound, supposedly one of the most beautiful of the fiords. We had to check in at 8:30, so we got up early and left our Te Anau motel quickly, driving to Manapouri to check in. They said it took 30 minutes to get there, but it took us only about 15 (and we weren't speeding). I guess they want to make sure you leave enough time.

Dock at Manapouri

We checked in, got our gear together to go on the boat, and then waited to get on. It was a cloudy day, and they said rain was predicted for later in the day. The Sound is best on a sunny day after a lot of rain cuz you get a lot of waterfalls. But this was a rainy day after a lot of sunny days. Oh well, we'd been very lucky so far, so you take what you get. The Doubtful Sound tour has three parts. First you take a boat across Manapouri Lake, then you get on a tour bus that crosses the land and finally you get on another boat and tour through Doubtful Sound for about 3 hours. The whole thing takes about 8 hours.

View of Doubtful Sound

We loaded onto the first boat, a large catamaran. The interior is set up in tables, 6 to table, which isn't ideal. Luckily it wasn't fully loaded, so we had only 4 at ours. We met Martina from New Caldonia. I wasn't sure where it was but she explained that it's a French colony north of NZ, east of Australia. Then another woman sat down, from Japan, with a heavy accent. (I could barely understand her.) She was blitzing around NZ in two weeks, whereas Martina was taking 5 weeks just to see the southern part of the South Island, clearly very organized and thorough, really seeing it all. Although the ride through Lake Manapouri is just a way of getting to Doubtful Sound, it was quite pretty in itself. It's like a mini-fiord, with tree-covered hills coming out of the water.

Ferns along road to Doubtful Sound

Next we transfered onto a huge touring bus and drove across to the Sound. (There were two busses for the roughly 90 people on the tour.) Our bus driver gave running commentary along the way, about the native trees and about how the road was made. He stopped 3-4 times along the way at pre-determined spots so people could take pictures, not necessarily where I would want to stop but the road was narrow so there were only a few choices anyway. (Walendo picked up a rock for the travel fountain at one of lookouts.) I felt like we were part of a faceless enterprise, but I appreciated that the bus driver provided interesting information along the way. The views were nice, but I especially liked the ferns and the beech trees coming out of the rocks and took some shots.

Inside Catamaran, Doubtful Sound

The road is a narrow gravel road that was cut when they needed a way to get supplies to the power plant they built there. The driver said it's the steepest road in New Zealand. It seems crazy that they take giant tour buses on these narrow, steep roads, just the type you'd expect them to avoid.

Doubtful Sound

At Doubtful Sound, we loaded onto a yet bigger catamaran, and again we grabbed a table. We sat with a couple from Australia, outside of Melbourne. We chatted with them about Australia, their travels, what it was like where they lived. We asked them what they thought about the Peter Hastings scandal, which we'd been hearing and reading about while in Australia. They said Hastings was very well liked, no one would want him out, that it was all just politics. I suppose it's nice that the seating makes it easy to chat with some people who you otherwise wouldn't meet.

Doubtful Sound waterfall

We motored very quickly through the Sound. The scenery was indeed gorgeous, very much like Milford Sound, but I also felt a little distanced from it. It rained on and off, so we spent some of the time at our table, looking at the fiord through the glass. Compared with yesterday when we'd kayaked in Milford sound, this seemed less dramatic. I stood outside as much as I could so I could feel more a part of the Sound and to take pictures.

Early on we paused at some rocks to see some seals hanging out on the rocks. That was nice but we were a bit far away to see them well. Then a little later we stopped in an area where there were a whole bunch of dolphins swimming around, some of them jumping out of the water. I kept trying to get pictures of them while they were out of the water but I was too slow at it, so I mostly got not-so-good pictures and didn't see them that much. Oh well. I wished we could have stayed and watched them longer.

Doubtful Sound seals

As we went along, the captain didn't say that much, only occasionally pointing out things. We were motoring so fast, it felt like we were on our way somewhere instead of being there. I had to keep remembering that this was what we were here to see. I was glad we'd done the kayaking before.

Doubtful sound looked quite similar to Milford, definitely longer and maybe wider with more offshoots, but the mountains seemed about as high. (I think Frommer's had said it was much higher, but it didn't seem that way.) It had similar terrain with beech trees growing out of rock, with the same type of evidence of tree avalances we'd seen yesterday.

When we were out at the mouth of the Sound the boat went out to some rocks where a bunch of seals were hanging out. I got some pictures, some of which might be good. Then we turned around and headed back. I stayed outside more of the time so I could fully enjoy it.

Doubtful Sound dock where we transfered from cat to bus

At one point, they took us to a quiet cove and stopped the engines so we could hear the natural sounds. We heard a bunch of bird calls, but otherwise it was very quiet. Again, I wished we could have stayed there longer. We continued back, not stopping much more. We were out on the water about 3 hours. It was gorgeous and I was glad I saw it, but again, I felt a little too removed from it.

Manapouri Power Plant

We transferred back onto the bus (but not before Walendo collected a rock for the travel fountain), and this time didn't stop along the way and without any commentary. At the end of the road, they made a stop at the Manapouri Power Plant. We drove 2 km deep into mountain in a narrow tunnel. Then at the end, this huge bus did a 5-point turn to turn around, which was amazing. The driver got a round of applause when he'd accomplished it. We all piled out of the bus and walked down some steps to a platform overlooking 7 gigantic turbines. You couldn't really see much, but they had some photos and diagrams and explanations on the walls, so people checked that out. It was a little strange to include this in a tour of Doubtful Sound, and I didn't learn that much this way, but it only took an extra half hour so it was no big deal. The display on the wall made a point of saying that natural vegetation was growing back quickly, and that there was little damage to the area from building the power plant. Walendo got two little rocks from the tunnel.

Lake Manapouri

Then it was back onto the catamaran on Lake Manapouri to go back to the drop off point. This time we sat with a retired couple from north of London. Again, we had a nice chat about their travels and where they live and such. The ride back was also quite pretty. When we were back in Manapouri, Walendo documented the rocks he'd picked up for the travel fountain at various points, then we drove about 2 hours back to Queenstown. We didn't have reservations and would get back late for dinner, so we were a bit worried about time.

Hay bales along the road

Along the way, we decided to stop at a roadside place to eat so we wouldn't have to worry about restaurants being closed when we got there. Walendo got some friend chicken and fries and I had a decent quiche thing. (It's nice that many bakeries and takeout places have quiche — I wish they did in the States). He ate it in the car while I drove and tried to eat. Around 6pm or so the lighting and the clouds were beautiful, and again I felt bad that we had to hurry since we didn't have reservations anywhere.

Sheep in the field

Walendo encouraged me not to worry about time, that we'd find someplace somewhre, so I stopped to eat my quiche and found a great spot with hay bales on the side of the road. The gate was open, so I could walk into the field and find the right place to set up, rather than having to do it from the fence outside. That was great! The sun peaked out a few times, but mostly it was fairly flat lighting but with a beautiful sky. I hope some come out well. Then down the road, we stopped again where there were sheep and the background was beautiful. As soon as I set up, the sheep nearby scurried off, but I got some shots with my zoom lens of the sheep looking back at me curiously, with a nice background. Those could be good. I was very happy that we took the time to do that.

Hotel in Arrowtown

We decided to go to Arrowtown, which is the next town down from Queenstown, figuring it would be less crowded and cheaper.

Ellen writing in journal Arrowtown motel

It turned out to be a tiny town, very quaint, but no real hotel row. Instead we drove through neighborhood streets following street signs that pointed to motels. We went by three, all with no vacancies, so we decided we'd drive another 50km to Cromwell. Since I was tired, Walendo said he'd drive, which would be his first time driving on left side of road. (I've been doing all the driving so far.) He got set up, we took a left onto the next street (cutting it a tad close on the left), and lo and behold we saw a hotel with a vacancy sign. Of course we overshot, so he had to turn around, which was stressful, but he managed. While turning around, we saw a second vacancy. The first place turned out to be strange — I couldn't find the office, but then the second one (the Shady something) was in a pretty setting and had a nice little room for NZ$90 (US$36), perfect. The woman said they'd just opened about 6 weeks ago and were still working out the kinks, but the room looked fine to us, if a bit small for more than one night. I guess we just needed to threaten to move on and that allowed us to find a hotel.

We unpacked the car, then spent the evening uploading pictures and organizing them. Now I'm writing up the events of the last three days. I hope I didn't miss much.

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