Days 45, 46 & 47

Day 45

We decided to take it easy today. We started off the day with a very important trip to the post office!

Since the rain was coming down pretty hard, we decided to spend some more time on the computer. We did a little bit of walking around town, then headed back to our hostel, called the Blacksheep.

Day 46

The day started rather early, as we left on the bus at 6:30am. We were headed for Te Anau and an exciting trip out into Doubtful Sound.

The weather in Queenstown was beautiful and sunny, but the closer we got to the west coast and fijordland, the darker the clouds looked. We saw a beautiful double rainbow along the drive, but we didn't find the pot of gold.

We arrived in Te Anau (Tee-a-now) around 9:45am, which left us enough time to drop our bigger backpacks off at the hostel we would be staying in tomorrow night.

We then headed to check in for our overnight journey out into Doubtful Sound (which is actually a fijord and not a sound).

Doubtful Sound is a larger fijord than the well known and travelled Milford Sound. The journey to Doubtful Sound is also a bit longer as we take a bus to a ferry on Lake Manapouri, we cross the lake and hop on a coach which takes us up and over the Wilmont Pass, where we reach our boat that takes us out into Doubtful Sound.

This is our first view of Doubtful Sound from a lookout point on the top of Wilmont Pass.













We proceeded down the gravel road towards the wharf where our boat was waiting for us. Once we were on the boat the views and photos were all around. It has been cold the last couple of nights and there was some fresh snow up in the mountains.














At first we were a bit bummed about the weather, but it turns out that being in the sounds when it is raining is quite spectacular since there are so many waterfalls coming down off the rocks and mountain sides.













The dark sky made some of the scenes much more dramatic.













The waterfalls were flowing!



















At the back of the ship we were on, they had around 20 kayaks, so after we were in one of the arms in the sound, we were able to take them out and paddle around a bit. The kayaks were very short, which made turning around quite easy.















We had a great time being out on the water, we just had to keep moving or else we would get eaten by sandflies. The ship with 3 masts you see in the background is the one that we were on.















John specifically asked for a paddle that would match his boat, and a lifejacket that would match his jacket, he is so stylish!

We got back on the boat and got dried off after almost an hour of paddling around. We then had a nice dinner and some good conversation with the other folks on the boat. We were up for one more adventure before the night was through, heading out to the Tasman Sea to see the fur seals on a few small islands just west of where the sea meets the fijord. It was difficult to get pictures due to the heavy rain, lack of light and rocking of the boat. This one managed to be somewhat discernible.

The one in the middle with his front end up is the bull, and he was talking to the rest of them. The seals were quite active this evening (it was getting close to the time they go fishing) and were playing on the rocks. It was fun to see the seal pups going up pand down the rocks and jumping in the water.

Our nature guide told us that a few weeks ago they saw a great white in this area preying on the seals. Fortunately we were able to watch the seals enjoy themselves.

Day 47
We woke up to a beautiful morning. We were up nice and early as the anchor was pulled at 6:45am. We wanted to get an early start to the day to increase our chances of seeing some dolphins and penguins. We headed out into another arm of the sound where the dolphins like to spend time. Fortunately, we were able to see some bottlenose dolphins swimming past our boat. They were not in the mood to play this morning, they were on a mission!

It had been cold again last night and we woke up to more snow on the mountains. It was beautiful to see.













Once we reached the area where the arm met the mountains, the captain turned the boat engines off and we had a few moments of silence in order to hear the water rushing in the waterfalls and the bird songs coming from the land. It was really nice to hear the sounds of nature and proved to be an interesting sociology experiment. Not everyone is able to stay quiet for 5 minutes.

After the silence broke, we headed back into the main sound.




















It was such a beautiful morning and we were enjoying some sunshine that we were not able to enjoy the previous day.














It was quite chilly this morning so we were bundled up to stay warm! We spent most of the morning outside enjoying the day and the scenery, but we took frequent coffee breaks to warm up.














Unfortunately we had to head back to the dock to be there by 9:45am in order to get back over Wilmont Pass, across Lake Manapouri, on our bus and back to Te Anau by 12:45pm.

We went and got some lunch then headed to the movie, Ata Whenua. It is an incredible scenic movie filmed by a helicoptor pilot in the fijordlands. It is a compilation of 10 years of filming put into a breathtaking 35 minute movie. It is a local gentlemen who did the work and when he was finished there was no theatre to show the movie in. So he built this one theater cinema in Te Anau just to show this movie! It is the only place in the world that you can see the movie (unless you purchase a copy of course) and it was well worth it.

The rest of the afternoon and evening we relaxed at our hostel and did some laundry. We didn't get the best sleep on the boat, so we were pretty tired by this point.