Doubtful Sound

Today's kayak trip was in Doubtful Sound.  We had to get up early again and drive to Manapouri about 20 minutes away from Te Anau.  Amazingly, we were actually early and had to kill some time driving around the town (which took 1 minute).

Rainbow over Manapouri

The kayak guides showed up and we had to go through the usual instruction spiel and then we piled onto a bus to the boat dock.  The trip would consist of a boat trip across Lake Manapouri, then a bus, then another boat and then kayaks.  The return would be the reverse of all that so it was going to be a very long day.

The boat trip across Lake Manapouri was pretty fun.  It had rained a lot the night before and the winds were still up from the storm.  This made the lake REALLY choppy and boat was bouncing around all over the place.  Reg, the captain, said we were going to do about 25 knots but it felt like a lot more especially with all the spray.

It took about 45 minutes to get across the lake and we ended up at the visitor center for the power plant on the lake.  We then got on a bus for a 30 minute ride to the second boat.  We stopped along the way to take some pictures of some waterfalls that were flowing.  The guides said we were pretty lucky it rained the night before because they had not had rain in over a week and all the waterfalls had run dry.

At the end of the bus ride, we got onto Adventure 2, the second boat which would take us to our kayak drop off point.  The water was still very choppy but we weren't going as fast so the ride wasn't as exciting. The guides decided that our original drop off point was still too rough from the storms so they took us a little further.  We stopped and ate our lunch and then suited up and got in our kayaks.

Our Doubtful Sound experience was leagues above Milford Sound.  There were so many waterfalls and the water was serene.  Our guides, Rowen and Reg, were really knowledgeable and friendly.

Doubtful Sound waterfall

Waterfall

AM enjoying the view

Who took this?!

Another beautiful waterfall

The waterfalls all flowed right over the water so since we were in waterproof kayaking gear we could just paddle right up and even under(!) some of them.  We would get drenched but it was fun and really refreshing.  The water wasn't as cold as we imagined it to be either.

The kayak trip took about 3.5 hours and we got to go further than most trips do because we started a little further into the trip.  Rowen said we were lucky (yet again) because most people would not get to see the end of the arm that we were in.  The pictures do not do it justice.

The end of our trip

We got picked up by Reg in Adventure 2 and started our journey back to Manapouri.  Everyone was pretty beat so it was a quiet ride back.  They fed us cookies and coffee on the bus to help perk us up.

By the time we got to our car it was 5:30.  What a long day but we weren't too tired.

We drove back to Te Anau and were starving (again) so we found a restaurant and AM had a falafel sandwich, salad and a Mac's Gold beer and Bernard had bangers and mash.  Another great meal and we finished it off with some lattes.

It was a relaxing rest of the night and we threw some laundry in and sat in the lounge watching a Harry Potter movie.

Tomorrow we head back up to Queenstown for our bungy adventures!  Bernard will be doing the Nevis jump which is 134 meters (440 feet) and Annemarie will get dunked in the river after jumping 43 meters (141 feet).