Doubtful Sound

If you take one of the boat cruises to Doubtful Sound, the itinerary takes you westwards along Lake Manapouri’s West Arm, at which point you disembark the boat, and take a coach over the Wilmot pass. This road was the most expensive to construct in NZ, and only one tour operator is allowed to take its buses along it. As there is no overland route to this unsealed road anyway, traffic jams are rarely a problem.

The road was made so that materials for the construction of the hydro-electric power station (built into the heart of the mountain) could be brought in from the sea. A visit to the very impressive West Arm power station is part of the day trip, even those for whom technology is a giant yawn cannot help but be awed by the scale of the engineering feat.

The drive through stunning alpine scenery for half an hour takes you up and over Wilmot Pass, in the heart of Fiordland; at the end of the unsealed road is Doubtful Sound. Another cruise boat takes you in comfort through to the Tasman Sea.

The cruises take the whole day, and actually start at the tiny settlement of Manapouri (about half an hour’s drive south of Te Anau). The cruise boats are well fitted, and very comfortable. You must take your own lunch, but a packed lunch can be purchased at Manapouri before departure if desired. The staff often serves afternoon scones on the return journey. Seals and the occasional penguin can be seen on the shore and if you’re lucky, you might even see a whale in one of the fiord inlets. Apparently it’s a popular place for whale Mums to bring their calves.

The typical view of the Fiordland coastline displays the common feature of a whole hillside of trees and undergrowth having been ‘peeled’ off due to a phenomenon called a treequake. The forest has very shallow roots as there is minimal soil available; in fact many NZ native trees specialise in thriving with extremely shallow root structures, on solid rock! If one large canopy tree falls (perhaps during an earthquake), it pulls a whole sheet of vegetation down with it, as the tree roots are so tightly interwoven.

It usually takes about seventy years for a scarred area to regrow completely. Of course the abundant rainfall in Fiordland (up to seven metres a year) encourages the process somewhat.