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| Doubtful Sound |
Well it does get better. As we have moved from north to south through both islands of New Zealand, there has been no stop to incredible mountains, lakes, rivers, glaciers, thermal pools, the ocean, rain forests, deserts, and then vineyards. I could not imagine it getting better, but it did. There is no way I can put into words to adequately describe this World Heritage Site, the southwest coast of the South Island, Fiordlands National Park.
We based our camper in Te Anau on Lake Te Anau at the eastern edge of the coastal mountain range that make up the Fiordlands. The tour companies have this down to a science, where they can pick you up by bus in either Queenstown, or Te Anau. From there they take you to Manapouri or to Milford, depending on which sound you are going to visit. We chose to do Doubtful Sound. From Te Anau we bused to Lake Manipuri, took a nice catamaran boat across the lake, then a bus over Wilmot Pass and down to Doubtful Sound. The above picture was taken from the pass as we got our first view of the Sound. Once down at the dock, Shelley and I, along with 62 of our new best friends, spent the next 4 hours cruising around this spectacular fiord.
The sheer rocks initially pushed up by massive tectonic plates, then carved out by ancient glaciers are made up of very hard granite, gneiss, and schist, have resisted erosion over thousands of years. That is what defines a fiord. Steep cliffs, narrow valleys, are created by glaciers and not by the ocean. It was simply beautiful.
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| 40 km out from our dock, we reach the Tasman Sea |
The water depth in the Sound runs from 350 to 400 meters deep throughout. These cliffs continue straight down for over 1000 ft. below sea level.
It was a long day with all the bus, boat, bus, boat transfers, then do it all over again on the return, but it was so worth it. I took many more photos, but there are just too many to publish here.
Yes it was cold and windy but so many great memories.
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