Fiordland, New Zealand

Thursday and Friday, 17 and 18 January 2008

After a day's driving, we arrive at Te Anau. This village is a staging post for trips to Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. We stop for the night in the "Top 10" holiday park, one of a chain of campsites that are in all the major tourist spots in the country. They have been of a good standard. So far we haven't done any "freedom camping" (camping on the side of the road) for fear of being pecked to death by swarms of vampire kiwi birds - you'd be surprised how often this happens.

We have been told that the road to Milford Sound is a terrible drive. Every morning, the road is ruled by demonic tour coach drivers, blaring the Ride of the Valkyries from their buses, intent on running campervans off the road. Doubtful Sound is a bit more remote but offers the same scenery so we choose life.

The very efficient and friendly "Real Journeys" company run the tour. The trip begins with a boat journey across the glassy Lake Manapouri and 2 km bus trip underground to the West Arm hydroelectricity power station. The power station has some impressive looking turbines and other behemoth hydropower contraptions we don't understand. It looks ideal for the final scene from a Sean Connery Bond movie where loads of little men in matching silver coats and hardhats run in random directions, doing their best to be blown up.

Following this we take the bus overground, through the picturesque Wilmot Pass to Doubtful Sound itself. Our very capable tour guide is Rex, who gives a wry commentary along the way, mostly taking the mick out of tourists. The final stage of our trip is the climax, a 3 hour boat cruise along the Sound. It's hard to exaggerate just how beautiful Doubtful Sound is. A vast, empty stretch of water surrounded by towering green hills. Apparently it was called "Doubtful Sound" because, when Captain Cook reached the opening to it on the Tasman Sea, he decided not to venture up the Sound because it was "doubtful" there would be enough wind to get back out of it. Interesting story.

We are the only boat in the Sound and chug slowly out to the Tasman Sea. On the way we are lucky enough to see a school of bottlenose dolpins up close. It is mating season so the young males put on a rare show (not the kind you are thinking about!), one which the tour guides haven't seen before. For about 20 minutes, 10 large dolphins, do jumps and somersaults a few feet away from the boat. All of the passengers are on the upper deck, snapping away at this like papparazzi. Dara gets about 10 minutes of film footage and is very proud of himself. He then has the bright idea of deleting some other photos to make room on the camera's memory stick. In a new bungling personal best, he manages to delete all of the footage. Ooops!

For photos (but no footage) click here.