Doubtful Sound
Started the day with an early drive to Manapouri to cruise Doubtful Sound. This involved an hour long boat ride across Lake Manapouri to the Power Station on the West end of the lake. Manapouri is the fourth largest lake in New Zealand. Then a bus ride 2 KM underground to the power station and then over Wilmot Pass to Doubtful Sound (so named by Captain Cook in 1770 when his men asked him to sail into the sound. Cook replied ‘if we go inside its doubtful we can sail out’).
The excursion boat took 3 hours to cruise the length of the sound. Morning weather was overcast and rain but cleared in the afternoon. As you can see, the scenery was spectacular! Just what you imagined New Zealand to be. The picture on the left shows Kathy video taping the mountains in the sound on the way back to the dock. Today is all about the scenery. Kathy took over 140 pictures and was too hard to pick only six.
Monday, March 20, 2006