Doubtful Sound

     Wednesday, October 31 started off with perfect weather as David drove us to Lake Manapouri to begin our all-day trip to Doubtful Sound. And it’s a small world after all! While Steve and I were waiting for the boat at Lake Manapouri, we started chatting with a couple from San Diego who were just ahead of us in line. When they asked us where we were from in the States and we replied Bellingham, they asked if by chance we knew their cousins. Sure enough, we did! There followed photos of the four of us to send back to Bellingham.

 

     We set off along the sparkling West Arm with Lake Manapouri bathed in sunlight.

 

     When we docked about half an hour later there was a second bus waiting to drive us over Wilmot Pass, the site of a major underground hydroelectric plant that empties into Doubtful Sound.  At the end of the second bus ride we boarded an even larger catamaran that took us on a 3-hour cruise around spectacular Doubtful Sound, one of New Zealand’s most remote places.

     The story goes that when Captain James Cook first sailed there in the 1770s and saw the inlet to the sound he decided not to risk sailing the Endeavor into it. In fact he named it “Doubtful Sound” because he was highly doubtful he would ever be able to sail back out if he went in.

     Somewhere between Lake Manapouri and Doubtful Sound the weather changed dramatically and our sunny skies turned stormy. But even in the rain, it was fabulous day!

 

     On to Queenstown…