Doubtful  Sound
by Pamela Blalock
with (most) photos by John Bayley
After further investigation, I realised that we only had
a 5 km walk for the first day of the Milford, so we could take the late
boat out to the start, so we could do all our shopping the morning of
the walk, and spend a full day cruising and resting. The weather forecast
looked reasonable, so we decided to do a Cruise
on Doubtful Sound.Compared to many of the other touristy things
we've done, this was pretty good value for money. It wasn't cheap, but
it did last all day. We were picked up in Te Anau and taken to Lake
Manapouri, where we cruised across the lake to get on another bus. This
bus took us deep into the mountain for a view of the power station,
and then over the Wilmot Pass to the sound where we got on another boat
for the cruise around the sound. After three hours, we took the bus
back over the pass and the boat back across Lake Manapouri, and finally
the shuttle back to Te Anau. It was a full rest day!
My memory was of clearer skies than the photos indicate.
We did have lovely views, and thoroughly enjoyed watching the dolphins
and waterfalls and fresh snow covered peaks. I definitely recommend
this trip.
We thoroughly enjoyed watching the dolphins jump and
play, but it is very difficult to actually take a photo of them in mid-air.
I've left it to the professionals at Craig
Potton Publishing. Click on the photo to go to their website to
view others and purchase prints or posters.
Enough of this crusing stuff. Jump straight to the
South Island Bike Tour
Milford Track 
Routeburn
Track
Franz Josef Glacier
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