Friday, May 18

Friday, May 18, 2007

Today was our day to visit Doubtful Sound. It was a full day trip that started around 8:55 when the shuttle bus arrived outside of the hotel to pick us up. We were the last people in Te Anau to be picked up. We drove about 30 minutes to Manapouri where we picked up six other people.

The office for Doubtful Sound cruises is located in Manapouri so it was less than a 5 minute drive to the office after picking up the remaining people. Some people who had driven themselves to the office were standing around outside the office.

I ran across the street to the public toilet while Josh went into the office to check on paying the bill. When I came back, he had that sorted out so we waited for our captain and then we were off to the boat. There were 19 of us and the boat carries 20 passengers.

It was a sunny morning and we had a good view as we went out into the waters of Lake Manapouri. The water wasn’t too choppy either which was good since we’d forgotten to take our sea sickness pills. It was warm in the sun and some people were peeling off their layers but it wasn’t so hot to me.

The first boat ride across the lake is about 45 minutes long. We saw a rainbow as we came into dock at the Visitor’s Center. As we disembarked and approached the Visitors Center, we saw luggage sitting out for the tourists who decided to take the overnight stay with Real Journeys. We also saw (and felt!) lots of buzzing, biting, black bugs. UGH! Get me inside the building.

We waited in the Visitors Center reading about the history of the area for about 15-20 minutes while Nigel, the boat captain, went to fetch our shuttle bus. Nigel, as we soon found out, operates a one man tour so it takes him awhile to manage the different types of transportation by himself. The shuttle bus would transport us to the Manapouri Power Station which is directly across from the Visitors Center and across the Wilmot Pass (which is New Zealand’s most expensive road at $2.00 per centimeter because no one wanted to work in the middle of nowhere with buzzing black bugs…and it’s not even a paved road!) down the mountain to Deep Cove.

When Nigel returned with the shuttle to the Visitors Center, he asked if anyone was afraid of going underground to visit the power station…Well, I was scared but I thought it was going to be a tunnel road where we’d visit the power station and then come out on the other side of the mountain.

That wasn’t the case because after about 30 minutes underground, we were on our way back to the light by turning around and heading back towards the Visitors Center rather than going through the tunnel like I had originally thought and I would have enjoyed myself more if I hadn’t gone into the deep dark tunnel to reach the power station. On our way into the earth Nigel told us if we heard sirens, and there are two different types, to get out of what is essentially a man made cave because neither sound is good. Once we were at the power station, I read a sign that said one siren was for floods and the other was for fire.

Fortunately, we didn’t hear any sirens and we made it out safely to begin crossing the Wilmot Pass. That’s when the weather went south. Apparently, it’s very common to have rain in this area and that’s what we were in for. It was very cloudy and foggy so there wasn’t much of a view as we drove. We could make out several big and small waterfalls though so that was nice.

When we reached Deep Cove, Nigel left us to go get the bigger boat that we’d be taking throughout Doubtful Sound. Josh and I went down to the dock to wait for the boat to arrive. It was almost noon so a lot of people stayed in the bus and started eating the lunches they brought. Josh and I held off eating until after the big boat picked us up (about 20 minutes later).

Josh and I got situated at the back of the boat and took out our Subway sandwich and I had some Mellowpuff cookies to eat. We had Diet Coke to drink until we were able to make our way to the front of the boat to make hot tea. The cookies the company provided to eat with the tea weren’t that tasty though.

Cruising through the sounds was really nice and there were even more waterfalls to view. Josh and I would sometimes go out to the back platform to view the landscape and I went to the front platform a couple of times. Although we’d been warned about a hump in the floor at the front of the boat, a lady fell down and cracked her coconut…but nothing serious.

We were on the water about three hours and even went out to the ocean (Tasman Sea) but we didn’t see any wildlife other than birds. People were getting bored and were even sleeping at their tables. Then, a couple who had been standing out on the back of the boat came inside to tell the captain that they had spotted something in the water. Since we were seated in the back, we were the first to get out there to see what it was.

DOLPHINS…not the teeny tiny dolphins of Kaikoura but monstrous prehistorically large bottle nose dolphins. WOW!!! That was all I could say! WOW, WOW, WOW! This was the most incredible thing ever in a trip of chock full of incredible things! The dolphins were jumping out of the water and swimming around but the best part was the captain said he was going to drive off and to keep our eyes at the waves produced at the back of the boat.

About 5 minutes later, the dolphins were following the back of the boat and we were so close to them. Josh captured some video of them swimming so quickly behind us. Sometimes they would jump out of the water while following the boat. Viewing the dolphins was definitely the highlight of the Doubtful Sound cruise and totally redeemed the experience for us.

We left the dolphins behind and cruised back into the port. The sun was beginning to shine a bit more. Because we had to wait for Nigel to dock the big boat before we could take the shuttle bus back across the Wilmot Pass, we started off on a walk down the road. There was a large group of our tour walking ahead of us but Josh and I went at a leisurely pace and lingered at a spot that had a great view of a large waterfall.

As we walked down the dirt road, we could here the shuttle bus approaching and Nigel picked us up. A little bit further down the road we picked up a big group of people and after that we made one final stop for two people who must have really hauled to make it that far down the road. Then, it was back up and over the pass to the Visitors Center.

We waited another 20 minutes for Nigel to drop off the shuttle bus and get the small boat ready to take us out across the lake. I think they need to invest in one more staff member so this gig doesn’t take all day operating as a one man show. The bugs were still biting out here so if you do come for a visit BRING INSECT REPELLENT.

The boat ride back across the lake was really nice because the sun was shining so brightly. After spending a day in the fog, seeing the sun was a welcomed sight. A Visitors Book was passed around so I commented “Awesome Dolphins.” That gave Josh a laugh. But really, I couldn’t comment on anything else being super great…besides the waterfalls.

When we reached the dock, we disembarked and our shuttle bus back to Te Anau was waiting for us. This was one job Nigel didn’t do. We made it back to Te Anau after watching the sun set behind the mountains. Once we were back in town, we went to the Four Square grocery store in town and bought a few things for dinner. I bought another Wattie’s Chicken Curry so I was set for the night.

Josh and I made dinner and relaxed watching American Idol.