At 7:00 AM we were standing in the rain waiting for our bus to Manapouri and our final destination of Doubtful Sound in the Fiordlands. We switched to a ferry to cross the lake, and then back to a bus to finally reach Doubtful Sound. The sound got its name when captain Cook got close to its entrance in 1770. Fearing he would not be able to sail his ship Endeavor back out, he noted that it was Doubtful.
We traveled through the fiords for 3 hours. The rain was a curse and a blessing. There are only a handful of permanent waterfalls in the sound, but when it rains there are waterfalls everywhere. If it had stopped raining (which it did not), our guide said the waterfalls would be gone within 4 hours. So we had low visibility with the rain and mist but lots of waterfall sightings. The pictures do not do justice to the beauty and vastness of the fiords. You’ll just have to trust us, or better yet plan a trip!
We got up close to these falls, they were 50+ meters tall
Shawn has better pictures, but we’ll have to wait until we get back to the land of real computers and Internet to share those. In the meantime, click on the little picture to see a bigger one with detail.
Back in town, we opted for Italian food with a New Zealand flair: venison and gelato.
Venison in a berry sauce with a goat cheese tart and rocket salad
Homemade fettuccini with venison ragu
Daily ratings:
Doubtful Sound – 5 Kiwis
Birchwood Cottages – 5 Kiwis
Italian Restaurant = 4.5 Kiwis
Gelato flavor = Carmello
Steps taken = 1,631 (very few as we were on buses and boats all day)
Minutes without rain = none