[Te Anau, New Zealand] Our first Kiwi ‘tour’ today out to the Manapouri lake hydro-power station and over Wilmot pass to Doubtful sound. The weather in the morning looked promising but it changes so quickly and by the time our boat was ready to leave at 11:30 it was overcast. ‘Real Journeys’ seems to be the major player in the tour business here. A big and very spiffy cat, capable of carrying at least 100, arrived to take us and the 40 odd other tourists across lake Manapouri to West Arm and the power station. The hour long ride passed easily as the captain pointed out islands, gullies and other features. The walls of the lake were very steep and occasionally rise over a thousand meters to the higher summits. The sheer rock is covered in trees that have grown on top of the lichen, intertwined with other trees and hanging on to the occasional crack. Here they have tree-falls, not rock falls. When a tree comes down it takes all the connected tress with it and the snowball effect rips a gaping rock strip down the side of the mountain. It takes 75 to 100 years for the tree slope to recover.

Manapouri power station is awesome! From the visitors centre we boarded a bus and after notifying the control centre at Twizel (more that 200km away) descended over 200m through a spiraling tunnel to the machine floor of the station. It was an immense engineering project. 7 huge turbines generate some ridiculous amount of power (14% of the country’s requirement at one point). Environmentalists in the 60’s halted the raising of the lake level so the station has only been running at full power for the past few years (smart engineers built an extra tunnel). I’m always in awe of this kind of thing.

From the power station our driver and guide took us over Wilmot pass (another impressive feat of engineering). Rex (the driver) filled us in on the area, it’s history and the flora and fauna in his flat monotone voice. Even the jokes were rendered in the same tone. I’m not sure if he was bored of doing the same talk day after day or if that is just his way. Either way he was entertaining.

From the top of the pass we got our first sight of Doubtful Sound (actually a Fiord). Impressively steep rock walls stretched into the distance. An even larger and fancier cat was waiting at the docks to take us out on the sound. Not long after leaving port we were joined by a large pod of bottle nosed dolphins – the juveniles where having a ball jumping out of the water – so cool to see. The fiord tour itself was excellent. Steep tree covered walls, vast mountains, gushing waterfalls. All kinds of information from our guide as we cruised along and definitely more impressive than the fjords of Norway (Norway’s fjords are much longer but just did not feel as impressive).

The name ‘Doubtful Sound’ was from Captain Cook who marked it on a map as a warning to other sailors. He was doubtful that he would get the winds needed to get his ship out if he entered the sound, so he didn’t go in. We eventually popped out into the open sea at the mouth of the fiord to visit a colony of NZ fur seals sunning themselves on a collection of small islands before turning around and heading back up the fiord. On the way back we had more dolphins. This time even closer and playing in our wake. Great to watch.

After the cruise it was just a matter of the bus ride back over the pass and another boat ride across the lake. We got back to the van around 8pm and then had to drive up to the next town (Te Anau) to camp for the night. It was a long day even though we were passengers, but it was worth it (even for the price).

[Pictures: Big stuff in the power station 200m under ground. The view of Doubtfl sound from the pass. Heading home – just another stunning view of the fiord]

– Posted from my iPhone via 3G