Day 15 - Manapouri and Doubtful Sound

Tuesday 19 Apr

A later start, a cold breakfast and then we were off to the township to get Sammies for lunch and be  on our way. A lovely 45 minute drive through pasture, bush and lakeside views. Something to please everyone. Once again the weather was fine, nary a cloud to be seen. Given the average is rain two days out of three, we are doing remarkably well.

We reached Lake Manapouri and arrived at the little township. Some beautiful homes. Obviously a favoured retirement spot.

Our launch was a brand new large catamaran with a cruising speed of 25 knots so the trip was quite exhilarating if you stood on the top deck.

Real Explorers run a lot of tourist things in the South Island, they are a very conservation-minded company, and have donated over $50,000 p.a. to local conservation causes. They recycle as much as possible from all their bus/boat trips as well. 
 
The trip to the Wilmot Pass end of the Lake, site of the Power Station – which regrettably was undergoing maintenance and so we were not allowed to visit it – was enjoyable and took about an hour. We shared the journey with a coach load of Chinese tourists.

We were met by a couple of buses, one with the Chinese commentary. Our driver gave an amusing commentary in the flattest monotone I have ever heard. Things such as ‘This is a wild life sanctuary so we do ask that you not feed the sand-flies” If you have ever been near the Southland bush you will appreciate the humour in that one. The sand-flies can descend on you in clouds and they really bite quite viciously. People with scarves were covering their whole head and face to avoid them. He also told us, as we came over the top of the Pass (which cost around $80 to $100 per metre to build, and is 21 km long!) and faced a one in five gradient down the other side, that the brakes are thoroughly checked every year, and this bus is due to have them looked at tomorrow! 

He slowed down or stopped at some waterfalls, one of which sprays right across the road in wet weather, and is known by the drivers as the 'bus-wash' falls.

A 30 minute trip over the Pass on the well maintained road originally put in to transport equipment for the building of the power station and we were at Doubtful Sound.

Another very modern Catamaran, an excellent commentary and lots of room on board. Free tea and coffee and most important, spectacular views. Large TV Monitors situated around the launch showed our progress through the Lake, just like they do on aircraft, which helped make sense of where we were.

We were in the sounds for about three hours, spotting dolphins and blue penguins. The skipper brought us up to almost touching distance of some of the waterfalls and interesting rock formations.

We went right out to the entrance where the swell from the Tasman gave us a bouncy ride for a short while before our retreat to calmer waters.

On the way back we stopped beside a bird sanctuary island, and Frank turned off the motor for a few minutes. We all listened intently for the birdsong, and it was the most lovely serene moment, after a day full of noise.

Molten rock uplifted to the surface and 'frozen' in great shapes

We tiki-toured through some of the other smaller sounds at the sides on the way home, all very beautiful and then finally we were back at the wharf, on the buses and back to Lake Manapouri and then the trip across and there was our Unique Tour Bus waiting to take us home to our motel and dinner. Along the way we captured some clouds which were doing a bit of showing off