Another 6:00 am start. Jer got up and made an extremely continental breakfast of tea and toasted sliced buns with butter and apricot jam. And Jer had a kiwi. After a quick shower, we got dressed in our warmest clothes and went up to catch the bus to Doubtful Sound. When it did not arrive at 7:15 as specified, we asked our friendly motel proprietor, who reassured us that the bus often ran a bit late.
Eventually the bus did stop for us. It turned out that we were to catch the Milford Sound bus for a couple hours, then transfer to another bus just before Te Anau. The bus took us from Queenstown, through the Southland province (largely agricultural - many cute lambs were spotted, much to the delight of the Japanese girls sitting near us), to Manapouri. There, we all climbed aboard a boatamaran for our trip across Lake Manapouri, the second deepest lake in NZ. Snow-capped peaks and waterfalls abounded, and we saw 3 rainbows over the lake. (There was much oohing and ahhing.)
Once across the lake, we boarded buses to carry us over Wilmot Pass — between two largish mountains — to Deep Cove, the land-side entrance to Doubtful Sound. Along the way we saw much local flora, including rimu, silver and mountain beech, fuchsia and ribbonwood. We also saw fauna, in the form of a kea (NZ alpine parrot).
Finally, we arrived at Deep Cove, where an even larger boatamaran awaited us for the journey into the fjord. And there was no doubt that it was a fjord. The melting snow, coupled with a brief rain showers, created dozens of waterfalls throughout the sound, cascading down the steep slopes into the sea below. (Interestingly, they didn’t spray and splash into the sea, they just slid smoothly in.) It was a lovely backdrop for our tasty picnic — Jess noted several people eying our spread enviously. We cruised around the sound, enjoying the views, but were not lucky enough to spot penguins or dolphins during the journey. We did, however, spot NZ fur seals. One female came up to within a few meters of the boatamaran, just to port of the bow, and we watched her roll and frolick. Jer spotted another seal a bit farther away, and that one didn’t approach us. At one point in the journey, the captain turned the engines off, so we could enjoy the babbling of the waterfalls and the calls of the birds. (Unfortunately, our fellow passengers couldn’t seem to stop talking and clomping around the deck, so it wasn’t as quiet as we would have liked.)
On the return to Queenstown from Doubtful Sound, we stopped at the Manapouri Power Station, a massive underground hydroelectric power plant located between Deep Cove and Lake Manapouri. The tour buses drove us down to a viewing platform hundreds of feet below the hills, where we learned about the station’s history and operations. While not something we would have sought out, it was quite interesting.
On the boat ride back across from the power station to the bus, we chatted with Rex, who drove us from the power station to Deep Cove. He was quite a good conversationalist and very enthusiastic about the Sound. If you happen to go on a Real Journeys tour, you should see if you can get a ride on Rex’s coach.
Further along the route back, we spotted miniature horses grazing in a paddock, the first we’d seen outside of Willowbank.
Back at our motel, we decided we just werenn’t up for a night on the town. Instead, we ate the some cup-o-noodles remaining from our lunch provisions while lounging in the huge spa bath. It was so nice. We dragged ourselves out and into bed at 10:30.