From Manapouri we took a boat across the lake to the power station. Then a bus over the Wilmot Pass to Doubtful sound where we cruised to the sea and other neighbouring sounds.
On the boat to Manapouri we get a good view of Mt Titiroa which we will climb tomorrow.
The deepest part of Lake Manapouri at 444m.
Lake Manapouri power station.
The large pilons that extend through the national park straight to the Tiwai Aluminium smelter which uses almost all of the electricity produced here.
Our ride across the lake
A tui going crazy over the flax nectar at the wharf
A model of the power station. The water feeds from manapouri then goes down some huge tunnels where it rotates turbines and then releases the water at deep cove in doubtful sound.
Wilmot Pass
This is the window from our room - only 1/2m above the sea level
Our cabin where Karen is sleeping on the bottom bunk which is actually under water.
We get the severe afternoon winds in the sound as we head out to sea.
A hanging valley caused by a huge glacier.
GPS of our trip through the sound.
Cruising.....
As soon as this couple got on the boat the boat the got into a very intense scrabble game. Three hours later they still hadn't looked out the window.
Looking down the coast at the Tasman sea.
A fur seal colony.
After heading through Bradshaw Sound we park up for the night at Precipice Cove where we go for a kayak and a swim
The water was so warm and clean
Karen does some aerials
DAY 2
We start cruising again at the crack of dawn.
The water was really calm and we encounter a huge pod of bottlenose dolphins. This dolphin kept jumping up sideways to the boat with its baby on its side.
The dolphins ride the wake of the boat. Apparently since the waters are so cold down here these bottlenose dolphins are quite fat because they need an extra big layer of blubber to survive.
We had an incredible buffet dinner and breakfast here in the food hall.
The sails go up but only add a 0.1knots to the speed of the boat : )
This is the end of Hall Arm, a really calm area with some great mirror image views of the mountains
This is a tree avalanche which happened a year ago, just an ongoing thing throughout fiordland.
On deck enjoying the views
Our boat - the real journeys navigator
13 January 2011
We decided to treat ourselves to a overnight doubtful sound cruise with the real journeys navigator vessel. It was a wicked cruise and very different to Milford Sound.
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