We were picked up at 8.45am for our full day Doubtful Sound adventure. We are driven by coach to Manapouri, 25km away where we meet up with the people who have travelled from Queenstown by coach. We pick up our pre ordered picnic lunch. There is no direct road access, so the only way to get to Doubtful Sound is a cruise across Lake Manapouri in a large catamaran followed by coach trip across the Wilmot Pass through the rainforests to Deep Cove, pausing along the way to view Doubtful Sound far below. Unfortunately it is a cold, rainy and overcast day and the view from the top of the pass was hazy and there was snow laying on the side of the road in places. Doubtful Sound is a beautiful fiord that is three times longer than Milford Sound, with twisting arms. At Deep Cove we boarded a purpose built catamaran and spent 3 hours exploring this wilderness area of rugged peaks, dense forest and thundering post – rain waterfalls. It was at times raining and therefore not very comfortable outside. During the times of no rain we ventured out to take pictures and to look forward and behind at the scenery. We travelled all the way to the Tasman Sea where we sheltered behind Sheltered Islands to avoid the strong winds and rough sea waters. We then head back with a venture up one of the arms that is the same length as Milford Sound. We enjoyed the trip but felt it was a little long. A lot of history was shared and the interesting points were that the catamaran at Manapouri had to be trucked in and the ones at Deep Cove had come from the ocean along the fiord. The Wilmont Pass road was built at a cost of $80 m2 and was the most expensive road ever to be built
in NZ in 1965. It took two years to build and was completed in time to transport machinery from Doubtful Sound to the Manapouri Power Station near Deep Cove. We got back to the Hotel at 6pm.
