Another day at Te Anau, another adventure.
Today, we wanted to go on a boat ride to the Doubtful Sound. Another Fiord that
was misnamed by a Welsh captain in the 1800s whose name I keep on forgetting ;)
We were actually a bit worried that Doubtful
would be "more of the same" after this amazing experience at Milford
Sound. It turned out that this trip was slightly different than yesterday. The
first difference was that we started our trip at 8:00 am and not at 11:45 like
yesterday. As a consequence, all the peaks and hills were still covered in mist
while we were on the boat for about three quarters of the journey. What a sight
to behold! The fog slowly lifted as the journey went on and we were truly
speechless at the sight.
As I mentioned, we started at 8:00 am this
morning with the boat at Lake Manapouri which would take us across the lake. A
bus waited for us there to take us up a street to the Doubtful Sound.
Interestingly, this road is inside a national park and landlocked, i.e. it
cannot be reached by car from anywhere else. The road was initially used to
create a very large power station harvesting the power created by the large
masses of water flowing down the peaks, which we visited at the end of our
trip... but I am getting ahead of myself.
First we went directly to the other end of the
road to the Doubtful Sound. The sandflies (like midges) were a minor nuisance,
but anyone who has been exposed to the billions and billions of midges in
Scotland will keep a cool head here.
Once on the boat, aptly named "Doubtful
Sound", the amazingness was taken up a notch. As I said, Isi and I were
stunned by this almost clichéd view of mountain peaks in the mist before a
large lake with some rays of the sun glistening on the water. Almost every
picture we took could have been used as a postcard. Again, it's hard to put it
into words.
Comparing Milford and Doubtful Sound I have to
say that Milford is more... well... cozy and little in comparison to Doubtful.
I could then understand why Captain Cook missed Milford entirely when there are
belters like the Doubtful Sound around. The journey in total took well over 7
hours, mainly because the distances are so much bigger.
In addition, we saw several penguins and the,
by now, token seal island, fur-coat seals in this case. To get there, we had to
get a little further out onto the Tasman Sea. Unlike on Milford Sound, despite
it being a very calm day, you could still feel the waves rocking the boat
regularly. It was awesome!
At this moment, I need to point out the tour
guide again who had a great sense of humor, while staying informative
throughout the trip. Now, I finally know the entire story of the phrase
"Mad as a hatter". In England of the 1800s, there was a hype for hats
made from the fur of fur-coat seals. The hatters used among other things,
mercury to make those hats. Prolonged exposure which is, of course, toxic,
causes the people to slowly lose their mental faculties.
Apart from that, he managed to lighten the mood
now and again by, for example, pointing out the essential features of the one
and only fishing hut for crayfish and lobster in the Sound (satellite dish to
watch the Rugby and Cricket and the fridge to keep the beers cool). He was also
quick to point out an animal that tends to be primarily seen in good weather on
the Sound. They are one of the few animals in the world that use tools. In this
case, longitudinal vessels and implements to propel themselves forward. He was
reluctant to navigate the boat closer, as these kayakers tend to wave to the
crowd and understood English very well ;).
At one moment, the boat's engines were switched
off entirely and the people aboard were kindly asked to shut up and just listen
and appreciate the serenity of the place. Unfortunately, we had a group of
about ten Chinese tourists aboard who either did not understand the
international language for "Be Quiet" (index finger before the mouth
or "Sssshhhhh!!!") or just didn't care. As a consequence, the calm
and serenity of the place was interrupted by stomping Chinese tourists,
clicking and chatting away :( We can't have everything.
While we're at the topic of other passengers.
There was one Indian couple aboard that was soooo... mis-clothed for the
journey. The woman was the only one aboard with a bright yellow summer dress
and flip-flops while the male partner had bleached jeans and aviators. This was
rounded off by the fact that they were a napoleonic 1,60 m and obviously very
vain (A man with receding hairline constantly putting his hair down with his hand
on a boat where the wind half blows you off the deck... I call that vain). We
called them "Our Glamour Couple".
At the end of our trip onto the Sound, we
checked out the Power Station I mentioned at the beginning. To be honest, I was
not as impressed by it as I was by the nature, but it certainly was an achievement
of human engineering as it was carved out of solid rock and took 20 years to
build.
Afterwards, we returned to Manapouri and
subsequently Te Anau. After this exciting morning, Isi and I decided to go for
a slow stroll along the lake shore of Lake Te Anau. We had a beer at the one
pub with a beer garden near the lake and had a lovely chat with a British
couple for awhile before we went home to prepare for our journey to Queenstown
tomorrow...
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