When in Fiordland you must visit a fiord - and there's two local (ish) to Te Anau. Our original itinerary had us driving down the famous Milford road for about 3 hours to take a boat trip on Milford Sound. But in early Feb Fiordland had really torrential rain and this whole area, including Te Anau, was in a state of emergency. Tourists were trapped by floods and tree avalanches with one meter of rain in one day - state highway 94 to Milford Sound was washed away in places and is still shut two weeks on. So plan B was Doubtful Sound, but this isn't a self drive option as it's much more inaccessible - read on...
From Te Anau the first leg is to the edge of nearby Lake Manapouri, about 20 minutes out of Te Anau. Boarding a boat, it's a 50 minute cruise across the lake to take you to the start of the Wilmot pass. This pass was built in the 1960s to service the lake's hydro electric plant and ended up costing 2 dollars per cm and it's 20 km long - the most expensive road in NZ. It crosses the southern alps - beech forest on one side changing to rain forest on the other with a wet, warm climate. Luckily for us it was a dry day with only light cloud and as you descend the valley you get your first glimpse of Doubtful Sound.
We boarded the Patea Explorer and began our cruise down the 40 kilometre fiord. On either side the mountain have a Jurassic feel with dense tree ferns, moss and lichens and there's beautiful cascading waterfalls - it rains on 200 days a year!
The cruise was unforgettable - the highlight was seeing fur seals basking in the rocks but it was just an amazing place to be - a privilege to visit somewhere so unspoilt and ruggedly beautiful.
We cruised to the end of the fiord where it meets the Tasmin sea, which can be rough but not today. I will let the pictures speak for themselves - these were taken on my phone and Bethany will have better ones to do it proper justice.
At one point the engine was turned off and we had two minutes of silence. Appropriate as it's sometimes called the Sound of Silence.
Big smiles from us - it was a very long day, reversing all the various legs to get back to town, but definitely not to be missed.
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