Doubtful-Sound

2nd December 2009 Pearl Harbour in Manapouri was our start point this morning, where we need to catch the boat to Doubtful Sound. We had to check in at 9am and we were there in good time - it was only a couple of minutes drive from the campsite we had stayed at. Doubtful Sound is so called because allegedly Captain Cook looked at it as he came by in his ship and decided that if they were to enter the Sound, it was “doubtful” that there would be sufficient wind to blow the ship back out again. ...

3rd December 2009 After a very sound night’s sleep, no doubt brought on by the vast amounts of pure New Zealand air we breathed yesterday we were all set to explore another of fiordland’s sounds. Milford Sound is the more touristy of the two fiords with numourous operators offering a variety of cruises. It is also smaller than Doubtful and younger in terms of the glacier which formed it. It is one of NZ’s biggest tourist attractions with over half a million visitors a year. ...

1st December 2009 A travelling day today, getting ourselves from Kingston to Manapouri, ready for the Doubtful Sound trip tomorrow. It wasn’t a great distance to cover, only about 2 hours or so, but it took us past Te Anau, so we stopped off there for a look around, and to book some accomodation for tomorrow night to return to after we’ve been to Doubtful Sound. Te Anau is a fairly small place, and there isn’t a great deal here - a few holiday parks, supermarket and outdoor clothing shops seems to be about it. It really is a town to base yourself in to go and explore the Fiordland area. We had a look around a few of the outdoor clothing shops, and seeing as it has been so cold of late, and that we’re out on boats a lot in the next couple of days, we kitted ourselves out with a couple of Merino wool t-shirts - hopefully they’ll be warm! ...