Our cruise was led by Real Journeys and it was quite excellent. Starting from Manapouri, we crossed the lake on board the Fiordland Explorer ending up at the West Arm. It rained most of the way across the lake so the view was not so spectacular. Nevertheless, I spent most of the trip up on top of the boat looking around and exploring the sights. It was very cold up there so I was bundled up with my hat, gloves, toque, hoodie and all the other scraps of clothing I'd brought with me. Simultaneously, there was a middle-aged kiwi man there with his daughter/grand-daughter who was wearing shorts. This man impressed me so I snapped a picture of him...clandestinely of course.
After arriving in West Arm we boarded a bus to take us up and over the Wilmot Pass. Our bus driver's name was Alex and he had some wonderful quotations. My favourite went something like this: "Our mountains are like naked middle-aged people. Better with a few clothes on." He was referring to the fact that he liked the look of the mountains better when there were few clouds around the tips. At this point it was still quite cloudy but the weather cleared up nicely later in the day. At the top of the pass, we got our first look at Doubtful Sound.
After descending the pass, we got onto the Fiordland Explorer for our trip around Doubtful Sound. This boat had sails and engines...and only a single crew member responsible for them. The captain was able to control everything from a single piece of custom software. It was pretty awesome. Also awesome was that you could walk into the bridge and talk to the captain about where the ship was (visible by GNSS), and look at charts and maps of the Sound. There were, of course, spectacular views of the Sound for the duration of our time floating on it. Here is one representative photo that can't really capture the true beauty of the environment.
After we had turned around to head back towards Deep Cove, we encountered a pod of dolphins. This group of about 57 dolphins lives in the Sound year round. They seemed to really enjoy playing in the wake of the boat. The dolphins were definitely the highlight of my day.
On the way back to Manapouri, we stopped at the Manapouri power station. For most, this probably wasn't the most interesting experience but I found it to be incredible. This power station was built using the natural grade of the land instead of building a dam. It is inside underground chamber with a 2km long spiraling road access tunnel. Super cool.
The cruise then took as back to Manapouri and we drove back to Te Anau. We spent a quiet evening in the hostel playing games and reading.
I want to longboard down that access tunnel.
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