We have breakfast under overcast skies that soon degrade into a steady drizzle. We are holding our breath that things will clear off since we head out for a cruise on Doubtful Sound at 1:30PM. We hang out in the campers’ lounge to charge electronics and spend some time catching up the blog. We get a great surprise, a video call from Mike and Willa!
By noon we see patches of blue sky and a very warm sun is peeking through. Yeah! We pack lunch and after a short walk to the dock are anxiously waiting to board for the first of three boat rides today. There is no road access from this side of the lake to Doubtful Sound. Our trip entails a boat shuttle across the lake, a bus ride over Wilmot Pass then the actual boat tour of the Sound. Then we retrace our steps across the pass and lake Manapouri. It is a bit convoluted but each leg is cool in its own way.
We don’t have rain but we do have wind. Our various captains talk of 40 km/hr head winds as we sail west. There is pretty heavy chop on the open water of Lake Manaporu. Of course, we have to ride on the open deck. When combined with our forward speed the wind practically blows us over. It is about an hour ride but the view is great and we get a little lesson on hydropower production in the area. The bus ride is ok too. Early morning rain has brought to life many waterfalls along the route and it is a chance to get a close up look at the vegetation on these rainy, rainy mountainsides. They get 8 to 10 meters of rain a year on the west flanks of this range. With that much water there is moss on everything and trees grow on rock faces with virtually no topsoil. It is soooo green.
Doubtful Sound, it is impossible to grasp the scale of this place. Water to a depth of 430 meters filling a broad U-shaped valley 2 km wide in places. The main channel is joined by 5 arms each carved by adjoining glaciers. We motor our way out toward sea buffeted by winds and bounced on chop sometimes rolled on up to 8-foot swells. It is like a cork bobbing in a bath tub. Shear rock walls rise almost vertically on either side. Trees blanket surfaces where it seems impossible that they could find purchase. Moss blankets pretty much every surface. Streaks of grey-brown slice the lush growth where tree slides have scrubbed the landscape back to bare stone. Waterfalls cascade everywhere sometimes flooding across the cliff faces and others freefalling from a precipice. Wind pushes the spray in huge arcs. Awesome.
Wind and rough water make wildlife sightings difficult. We do get a couple great looks at the resident pod of bottlenose dolphin as the play about our wake. A colony of eared seals breed at the entrance of the Sound. They are basking in the sun and the pups romping about. A couple Albatross check out or wake. There are gulls of course. Not a bad showing overall.
It has been a beautiful day and a great expedition. I highly recommend it.