Te Anau and Doubtful Sound

I spent a night in Queenstown purely as a stop over – the place holds no appeal even though it is beautiful. The motor camp was the most crowded I have been too even though it is of a high standard, but vans are cheek to jowl and there are no views at all.

A side visit to the old gold mining town of Arrowtown is recommended however!

Then on to beautiful Te Anau, for the main purpose of visiting Doubtful Sound. I chose this in preference to Milford a) because I have driven the delightful Milford road before, b) because Doubtful is even bigger than Milford and just as lovely, c) Doubtful is less crowded and d) the journey out is more interesting.

The joy of travel is often in those occasional moments that make you smile or just create a sense of wonder and awe, yet usually cannot be captured in a photo. I experienced both as I was heading from Te Anau to Manapouri to join the tour, it was raining, light snow, very misty. Rounding a corner I saw a flock of shorn sheep (about 50), all huddled into the same corner of a paddock, all with exactly the same stance, all with their heads in the same direction and all with the same miserable expression on their faces. Sheep are just so....well, sheepish! They made me laugh.

Then, as so often happens in New Zealand, suddenly there was a break in the weather and the mist lifted to reveal a rugged, shining, snow-capped mountain with a huge rainbow arcing up it. Wow!!

The trip to Doubtful Sound is varied.

First there is a cruise across beautiful Lake Manapouri,

then into a coach to drive across the spectacular,

and in this instance, snow covered Wilmott Pass

then into a larger boat for the cruise of the Sound.

Lots of waterfalls, beautiful rock formations,

a few seals and penguins and it is so peaceful.

Highly recommend this trip.

Then on the return trip you visit an underground power station that includes a drive down a 2 kilometre tunnel!

Unfortunately the weather changed for the worse the next day so I still have not done the walk along Lake Te Anau despite two visits there now.