Doubtful Sound

I had to head from Queenstown to Manapouri because that is where the Doubtful Sound cruise departs. I did not quite make it to Manapouri as planned since I missed the 6:30 AM bus out of Queenstown (late night, funny story). I had to find a public bus and make my way to Manapouri to meet up with a couple of friends because we had booked the Doubtful Sound cruise for the next morning.

Both Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound are actually fjords formed by glaciers. Fjords are formed by glaciers as the glacier carves it's way downhill to the sea. Sounds are basically valleys that were flooded as the sea level rose. The fjords originally got named as Sounds, and the names stuck. Doubtful Sound is in a pretty remote location. The Doubtful Sound tour started out with a boat trip (cruise) through Lake Manapouri. Lake Manapouri is the second deepest lake in New Zealand. Lake Manapouri is also very cold because the mountains do not allow much sunlight to reach the lake and the sunlight that does only warms the top layer of water. It was a nice boat ride across the lake and the weather was clearing from the rain that we had in the morning.

The boat docks at the other end of the lake and we get off the boat to tour the West Arm Power Station. The power station was built between Lake Manapouri and Doubtful Sound since there is quite a lot of elevation difference between the two. The power station is what really allowed the touring of Doubful Sound since roads and infrastructure needed to be built for the construction of the power station. After the short power plant tour, we get on a bus and drive over a mountain to Doubtful Sound.

Doubtful Sound is pretty lush and green despite the steepness of the mountains. The area gets alot of rain every year and somehow vegetation manages to grow on the sides of the mountain. The cruise boat travels out from the end of the Sound out to the Tasman Sea. The ride is beautiful. Doubtful Sound is very long and has many arms that snake back away from the sea. At the entrance to the sound, we saw several seals lounging on the rocks. We toured a couple of the arms to the sound as we made our way back to the dock. In one arm, we saw a large group of dolphins swimming and playing around the boat. Doubtful Sound is a nice place that feels secluded and enormous. It was a pretty cool trip.

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