Day 14 – A trip to Doubtful Sound
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| Late afternoon at West Arm Lake Manapouri |
About twenty years ago I went to Doubtful Sound. At the time I thought it was one of the best t things I had done as a tourist. I wanted to share this with Bev and she readily agreed that we should do it.
We drove the 18 kilometres to Manapouri and got there in time to get a coffee before we and 15 other adventurous people were loaded onto a boat for the 45 minute trip across the lake to West Arm. The last time I did it we had a tour of the underground power station at Manapouri but this time it was not part of the itinerary which was a pity as it was an amazing experience. I remember the project and the campaign waged in the late sixties to ensure that the lake was not raised. Fortunately it was not!
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| Some of our fellow travellers |
The weather forecast had been for showers but fortuitously it was only overcast and a bit misty and clearing which is a fair representation of the region. We had a beautiful journey over the Wilmot Pass in this misty weather with a bus driver who spent his time talking about the Beatles and relating their songs to aspects of the day and journey. One thing that really stood out was what a wet environment it is. There were moss and lichens everywhere which is dry times and provides a reservoir of water for the trees.
Sometimes from the top of the pass you can get a good view of the sound but when we went over today, this was not the case due to the low hanging cloud. The road is a marvel of engineering and depending on your point of view opened up the wilderness to people prepared to take the journey.
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| Same bridge but opposite sides of it |
After one stop to view water pouring down a stream we arrived at Deep Cove and all sixteen of us were ushered onto the very nice boat for the trip up the fiord. We were an interesting mix of people. While most of us were older (almost retired) people, there was a young couple with young children who, due to their sense of dress seemed an unlikely group to go on a relatively expensive trip. There was also a youngish woman who spent much of her time enjoying the wind blowing through her hair at the front of the boat (similar to the scene in the movie “Titanic”). Along with several others, when we edged into the swell and the boat was heaving, they seemed to enjoy the experience of being on the edge. One poor man however didn’t enjoy this part of the trip at all, as he was suddenly struck by seasickness.
The photo above is of a building that evaded regulations by being built at the low tide point. Apparently regulations required any building above the high to be permitted. This one got around that regulation. Fisherpeople use it as a base.
The fiord is beautiful. There had been enough rain for there to be little waterfalls everywhere. At the entrance to the fiord we saw a colony of seals basking in the weak sunlight as well as the nursery of pups. They were dotted over a couple of large rocky islets.
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| Seals resting on large rocky islets with pups |
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| It's a bit bouncy up the front! |
We went up Crooked Arm where they stopped the engines so that we would be able to hear the rushing water cascading off the steep sides of the fiord but again, similar to my last experience, the sound of birds was absent.
We returned to the bus mid-afternoon and made our way up to Wilmot Pass. By this time the clouds had cleared away and we had a magnificent view of the fiord below us.
On the eastern side of the mountains it was sunny for our trip across the lake back to the car.
That evening we walked down to the local pub and had very nice meal which was rather large so we were pleased to be able to walk back to unit. It was a long day of sightseeing and we were rather tired. It is a trip I highly recommend.
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| Doubtful Sound from Wilmot Pass |
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