Just back to B&B from a long but very enjoyable day going to Doubtful Sound.
The day started with breakfast at 7.15am, made tolerable by the superb home-made pancakes & maple syrup!
The weather was sunny and hot all day, apparently not that common in this area which has the highest annual rainfall in New Zealand, so we were very lucky with that.
We were picked up at 8.15am and taken by coach to Manapouri, where we boarded a boat for the 60 minute trip across Lake Manapouri to West Arm. The lakeside scenery was great again.
At West Arm there is an incredible Power Station built inside one of the mountains bordering the lake (we were driven in for a tour), which basically uses water from the lake to generate enough electricity to power the whole of the South Island (however, the majority is diverted to run a commercial operation).
After that, there was a 45 minute coach ride up and over the mountains to arrive at a jetty on the edge of Doubtful Sound, where we transferred to another boat for our journey up the Sound. We spent about 4 hours in the Sound, travelling as far as the mouth of the Sound on the Tasman Sea.
Again the scenery was magnificent and, with our boat being the only boat there, it was an amazing experience (especially when outside on deck). There were only 44 passengers and 2 crew on the boat, so lots of room and no hassle.
During the journey, we also saw a colony of fur seals (on islands at the mouth of the Sound). a Blue Peguin swimming by the shore and three dolphins swimming alongside the boat.
We were finally dropped back at our B&B around 6.30pm.
One spooky thing.....earlier, at our B&B in Queenstown we met a Danish couple (Karl and Mona) at breakfast, well, we also met them at breakfast this morning here in Te Anau ...and they were also on the same trip as us to Doubtful Sound today!.....we're off to Dunedin next AND so are they! ....but different accommodation there.
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