NB Polgara: A Doubtful Day

Today saw an early start for us with the alarm set for 6 am. From our eerie on the hilltop we could see the sun rise on one side and the pink tops of the mountains on the other.

We set off for Manapouri at 7 am driving down through ground mist and low level cloud.

Compared to the warmth at the top of the hill it was quite chilly down at the port. Perhaps we should have taken anoraks with us after all! Perhaps we should have worn long trousers instead of shorts! Everyone else was wrapped up to the nines. But we are British and proud of it.

Our first mode of transport for the day. The first leg of our journey was a 50 minute boat trip across Lake Manapouri to West Arm Power Station.

Unfortunately the Power station is closed to visitors because of maintenance, otherwise our coach, on the next part of our journey, would have driven us down 176 metres below lake level to view the turbine hall. Water is drawn from Lake Manapouri, passed through the turbines and down the Tailrace Tunnel into Doubtful Sound. Most of the 4800 GW-h is used to power an aluminium smelter near Bluff.

Instead, we drove by coach across the Wilmot Pass up a 1 in 6 incline and then down a 1 in 5 gravel road, crossing a bridge that certainly looked narrower than the bus. That all took about 50 minutes as well.

On the way up the pass, the forest was mainly Silver Beech but once over the top it turns into a rain forest. This is because the weather fronts coming toward New Zealand from the Tasman Sea are heavily moisture laden and offload all their rain on the mountains in Fiordland. This is one of the wettest places on earth. Luckily for us the day was only overcast, the horizon was clear and there was hardly any swell on the sea.

On arrival at Deep Cove we transferred to another ship ready for a tour round Doubtful Sound.

We took many photos today but we will save most for when we get home. (Phew!) The dots in the picture above are New Zealand fur seals.

In 1770, Captain James Cook decided that the inlet was a 'Doubtful Harbour'. He feared that he would not be able to sail the Endeavour back out and resisted entering.

As you can see it's windy, cool and overcast but, great fun.

During the course of the afternoon we spotted a pod of bottlenose dolphins. As the boat sped past them they raced along to catch up with us and ride the boat's bow wave. Some of them entertained us by leaping through the air. Hopefully we have some of this on video.

The three hours passed all too quickly before we had to retrace our tracks by coach and boat. By this time the sun had come out and the temperature rose dramatically.

Back on land we decided to go to Te Anau for supper. It was a bit early when we got there but we had time to sit on the beach and make plans for the coming weeks.