Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Today we did a full day tour to Doubtful Sound. We left Te Anau just after 9.00am for the drive down to Pearl Harbour, situated just inside the mouth of the Waiau River which flows from Lake Manapouri. The weather was cold and miserable this morning so I put my waterproof pants on as well as my ski jacket. It may not have been the height of fashion by I’d rather be warm and dry than fashionable!!
We boarded our RealNZ boat and set out across Lake Manapouri, the first leg on our tour of the Fiordlands area of New Zealand. The rain stopped for at least some of the journey, allowing us to see some of the beautiful scenery. Today it was probably looking a little bit broody but at least it wasn’t a total white out. We sailed out past Pomona Island and then took a left into the West Arm of the lake, where we docked opposite the Manapouri Hydro Power Station.
We disembarked and made our way into the visitor centre, where we were able to make use of the facilities, before boarding busses to drive through the Wilmot Pass to the Deep Cove Cruise Terminal. The road was originally built to bring materials and labour in to build the power station on Lake Manapouri. While there are still a small number of staff that attend to maintenance at the power station, the road is mainly utilized for tourism these days.
The drive took about an hour, with scenic stops along the way at three waterfalls: the Cleve Garth Falls, Stella Falls and Helena Falls. After recent rain, more overnight and continuing this morning, the falls all had an impressive amount of water cascading over them.
Arriving at Deep Cove we found a collection of buildings. Another visitor centre to service the cruise passengers, a school holiday camp and a caretaker’s residence. A very, very isolated place to live! We transferred from our two busses and boarded another boat to set out into Doubtful Sound.
We found a seat with a table, upstairs on the boat and broke open the lunch boxes that we had purchased. Our reusable lunchboxes were filled with goodies: an egg pastry, a ciabatta sandwich, crisps, dried apricots, a mandarin, a slice with a salted caramel topping and a vanilla macaron. Probably twice as much food as needed BUT we polished it all off. On a cold day surely we needed all those calories just to keep warm??!
We soon sailed past Hall Arm and Elizabeth Island before arriving at one of the permanent waterfalls falling into Doubtful Sound, Browns Falls. We continued past Ferguson Island and the entrance to Crooked Arm which is the longest arm that leads to the true end of Doubtful Sound. This arm of Doubtful Sound is, on its own, larger than the whole of Milford Sound. We cruised into the very sheltered Blanket Bay, home to the Blanket Bay ‘Hotel’ which is a refuge for sailors and fishermen caught out by the weather. It provides a safe harbour to wait out a storm.
Arriving at Bauzá Island, our guide told us that we would be passing through Te Awaatu Channel, the narrowest point of the sound. Andrew also told us that this area has been declared a Marine Reserve to protect the black coral that grows in these waters. We sailed past the Shelter Islands, named as such because they provide the last shelter before you pass into the Tasman Sea. We sailed just a little further to the Nee Islands to observe the New Zealand Fur Seals hauled out onto these rocky outcrops at the mouth of Doubtful Sound.
As we bobbed around, on the sea now, rather than the sheltered waters of the sound we were told that Captain Cook charted this opening as Doubtful Harbour. Apparently this was because the prevailing westerly winds made it doubtful that the Endeavour would be able to sail back out, if she was taken in to explore further. It was only when a Spanish scientific expedition, led by Alessandro Malaspina, visited the area in 1793 that it was found to be a fiord/sound. The expedition’s cartographer, Felipe Bauzá, created the first chart of the sound’s entrance and lower reaches.
We were given a detailed explanation about the difference between a fiord and a sound. The primary difference is that fiords are carved by glaciers, resulting in steep cliffs and dramatic landscapes, while sounds are created by the drowning of river valleys by rising sea levels. So … Doubtful Sound was created by glacial activity and technically it IS a fiord but, apparently, the whalers and sealers who renamed it Doubtful Sound didn’t know the word fiord and it looked like a ‘sound’ to them.
Sailing back into the sound we passed the other side of Bauzá Island and arrived at the second permanent waterfall, Chamberlain Falls. Andrew was at pains to point out that most of the waterfalls we could see today would dry up within 48 hours of the rain stopping as they are not true waterfalls. There are only three true waterfalls that cascade into the sound.
Next point of interest a ‘hanging valley’ that was almost used to film the opening scenes in Jurassic Park II. The location was selected and the film crew arrived. The first day it rained, the second day it rained, the third day … it rained. Three weeks later, with no fine weather, the film crew packed up and went to Hawaii.
Andrew invited everyone to go outside if they could, because the other Andrew, driving the boat, was going to turn off the engines, so that we could enjoy some silence. It was lovely out on the sound with the rain pattering gently on the roof. Despite Andrew’s entreaties to everyone to put away their phones and enjoy the moment, to be as still as possible so that footsteps wouldn’t intrude, people were photographing and walking around. It is so hard for people to just ‘take a moment’ and truly disengage these days. Despite the distractions I closed my eyes and found it quite meditative. What cracked me up the most was the young Asian girl, who had been sleeping in the lounge for quite some time, missing ample opportunities to take photographs, was the happy snapper!!
We had a brief spotting of a pair of the Fiordland penguins, but they didn’t like the boat and quickly headed back into their burrow, before arriving at the final permanent waterfall on our cruise, the Lady Alice Falls. After this we retraced our route to Deep Cove Harbour and, I confess, even I dozed a little bit, as did Bernie! The weather had really closed in and there was nothing new to see at this point, so that made it a bit hard to stay awake.
Disembarking at Deep Cove it was the same as this morning, but in reverse. We were bussed back through Wilmot Pass to the West Arm Visitor Centre, where we boarded the boat for the return journey across Lake Manapouri. After a big day out, Bernie drove us back to Te Anau, with us arriving back at our room about 6.00pm.
We sat around for about an hour, then decided to drive into town for dinner tonight since the rain had really set in. We ate tonight at Thai-Anau, ha, ha, see what they did there with naming their restaurant? Excellent red duck curry and a passable prawn pad see ew.
Steps: 3,946 (2.60kms)
