Everyone's heard of Milford Sound, but did you know that Doubtful Sound is 10 times as big (water area wise)? We were up at 5:30 and departed a little before 7 to catch the tour bus outside Queenstown. Two plus hours heading south along the shore of Lake Wakatipu to reach Manapouri. Then a 45 minute boat ride across Lake Manapouri to West Arm. Then another coach trip up over Wilmot Pass and down to Deep Cover on Doubtful Sound, followed by a 3 hour boat ride out to the Tasman Sea and back. Reverse the procedure and get home by 9:30 pm. We are pooped--someone forgot to tell us that it's hard work being on vacation!
It rains 2 days out of 3 on Doubtful Sound, so not surprisingly, it rained the whole day.
It had been raining for 24 hours according to the naturalist; the compensation was that we saw an endless array of waterfalls--we lost count--some of them cascading hundreds of meters down the sides of mountains.
Doubtful is the deepest of the fjords (about 1,200 ft) and is surrounded by towering heights, the tallest being Commander Peak at 1,200 m (3,900 ft). It's very remote; you can't drive there, but must go by boat with the "Real Journeys" tour company. So it remains more pristine with some of the original forests and with several small islands (over 30), some of which have been rid of invasive species of predators and set up as bird sanctuaries.
I hadn't really put it together that flightless birds evolved in NZ because, before humans arrived (the Maori) there were no natural predators here. The English brought the stoats, ostensibly to control the rabbits, which instead began decimating the flightless bird populations. So there are now efforts to trap stoats and possums to try and save the remaining endangered species. In fact, possum fur has become a profitable commodity and is used, often in combination with merino wool, for weaving. The local possum is considerably furrier than American varieties.
We met a really nice couple from Stowe (Staffordshire, England), Peter and Margaret, and are, in fact, meeting them for dinner in Wanaka this evening (it's Friday here).
We also got to see a small pod (maybe 8-12 individuals) of bottle nose dolphins, but I only got one half-way decent picture.
It's amazing to see lots of big trees clinging to the sides of these shear cliffs, and it is a precarious existence. "Tree avalanches" occur when a couple of trees give way and carry everything down below with them into the water. The naturalist on board the boat said that, following an earthquake about 7-8 years ago, there were over 200 tree avalanches on Doubtful Sound alone.
The water pouring off the surrounding mountains percolates through lots of tree debris, picking up dark tannins and creating a layer of fresh water 5-7 meters deep floating on top of the sea water in the sound. The dark color also creates an artificial darkness in the sea water, causing deeper water species to live closer to the surface. Apparently the sound has a substantial population of black coral.
We're going to take it easy today, maybe go for a walk along the lake.
It rains 2 days out of 3 on Doubtful Sound, so not surprisingly, it rained the whole day.
It had been raining for 24 hours according to the naturalist; the compensation was that we saw an endless array of waterfalls--we lost count--some of them cascading hundreds of meters down the sides of mountains.
Doubtful is the deepest of the fjords (about 1,200 ft) and is surrounded by towering heights, the tallest being Commander Peak at 1,200 m (3,900 ft). It's very remote; you can't drive there, but must go by boat with the "Real Journeys" tour company. So it remains more pristine with some of the original forests and with several small islands (over 30), some of which have been rid of invasive species of predators and set up as bird sanctuaries.
I hadn't really put it together that flightless birds evolved in NZ because, before humans arrived (the Maori) there were no natural predators here. The English brought the stoats, ostensibly to control the rabbits, which instead began decimating the flightless bird populations. So there are now efforts to trap stoats and possums to try and save the remaining endangered species. In fact, possum fur has become a profitable commodity and is used, often in combination with merino wool, for weaving. The local possum is considerably furrier than American varieties.
We met a really nice couple from Stowe (Staffordshire, England), Peter and Margaret, and are, in fact, meeting them for dinner in Wanaka this evening (it's Friday here).
It's amazing to see lots of big trees clinging to the sides of these shear cliffs, and it is a precarious existence. "Tree avalanches" occur when a couple of trees give way and carry everything down below with them into the water. The naturalist on board the boat said that, following an earthquake about 7-8 years ago, there were over 200 tree avalanches on Doubtful Sound alone.
The water pouring off the surrounding mountains percolates through lots of tree debris, picking up dark tannins and creating a layer of fresh water 5-7 meters deep floating on top of the sea water in the sound. The dark color also creates an artificial darkness in the sea water, causing deeper water species to live closer to the surface. Apparently the sound has a substantial population of black coral.
We're going to take it easy today, maybe go for a walk along the lake.
