Getting to doubtful sound is an adventure in and of itself. A coach picked us up in Te Anua and delivered is to a dock on Lake Manipori. We cruised across that lake to the a dock at the other end, where we boarded another Coach which took us up over Wilmont Pass and dropped us at our final transportation and overnight home.
The fiords are magnificant, but the real joy of the ride was the wildlife. New Zealand has it's own breed of fur seals and we saw hundreds of them. These seals are ridiculously small compared to something like the harbor seals you can find off the west coast of the US. They are the kind of thing that you want to wrap up and cuddle with at night. It's their warn and cuddly fur that nearly did them in as they were hunted to near extinction before they were finally protected.
We also got a great look at New Zealands Crested Penguins. The two species can best be contrasted by their mating habits. The male fur seals arrive on the rocks in November and fight each other for a slab of granite. Once they have staked out their territory, they wait and defend it until the females arrive in about a month. One fur seal then gathers a harem of up to 10 females. The penguins on the other hand mate for life. We found the happy couple just peaking out of the cave that housed their love-nest. They are again, like the seal, very small: under two feet.
Doubtful sound has a resident pod of bottlenose dolphins that buzzed by the ship just as we were sitting down for the afternoon soup (they fed us a lot, making up for our calorie deficit on the Milford Track).
After failing to get a good picture of the dolphins because of the potato-leek dripping on my chin, I remembered a lesson I learned a couple of years ago in Alaska: A vacation isn't media generation. Traveling with a new SLR has made my a bit obsessive about getting great photos. But in a place like Doubtful Sound, the pictures take themselves. So I reinstuted an old rule for myself. See first, then take a picture. So you'll have to forgive me then for this awful picture of us on the boat.
Jen will make a scrapbook, and well post some photos on Facebook, but the trip isn't and never was about the pictures.
The 'Navigator' moored for the night as it sent us off Kayaks in Precipice Cove. Alone (with 25 others) and without a camera I got a great chance to just be and soak in the surroundings. Jen took a ride in the little tendercraft they launch off the back of the ship.
For all that, my favorite part of the boat cruise was gearing up in our Gore-Tex and going out on the top deck while it rained. Especially when the boat was cruising into the wind.
So one additional bit of excitement on the way back. There was about 6 inches of snow overnight on the pass between Doubtful Sound and Lake Manipori. Jen took this picture of me while we waited for the bus driver to put on the chains.
All in all, it's an experience that I'm doubtful we'll forget anytime soon.
It's a little-known fact that your father was originally named "Doubtful Sound." Perhaps this is a good time to bring it up.
ReplyDeleteAnd forget that stuff about disdaining the photography. There are a couple of us in Illinois who will probably NOT slide through ice caves and abuse our wife with rugged overland journies...so take those pictures..and blog on!