Day 3 - Doubtful Sound, better than the 8th Wonder of the World

On the third day we arrived Queenstown, we had a whole day trip to Doubtful Sound. This was one of the highlights of our trip, as New Zealand is famous for her natural scenery!

Doubtful Sound is 180km (112miles) from Queenstown. We already joined a group tour two days ahead. The only tour company that offers Doubtful Sound trip is Real Journeys and it has an office at Queenstown. There is a way to save the tour cost, if you are YHA member, you can get a discount. This information is never shown on website, and you can only find it in Real Journeys' office! As we didn't join YHA before leaving Hong Kong, we couldn't have this discount!

There were several options for the tour package you can choose. The main difference of them was with or without meal provided. We decided to prepare our lunch so we just chose the cheapest package. The day trip was organized in the following format:
Queenstown->(chartered bus to Lake Manapouri)->(Ferry to Manapouri Power Station)->Manapouri Hydro Power Station->(chartered bus to Doubtful Sound)->Doubtful Sound Cruise tour

In the morning, we got up early and walked downhill from Fernhill to Queenstown downtown. The chartered bus would go around Queenstown area to pick up other people who joined the trip. Then we had a two hours commute to Lake Manapouri.

The pier at Lake Manapouri. Tourists will get off the chartered bus and board the ferry to Manapouri Power Station here.

The scenery was already gorgeous to me on Lake Manapouri. But better was yet to come.

The weather was great. Not so cold under the sun.

After one hour on the ferry, we arrived Manapouri Power Station.

A model describes how the power station works. The pipe connects Lake Manapouri to Doubtful Sound. Water goes through the pipe and turn the turbines to generate electricity.

We boarded another chartered bus at the power station and the bus took us to Doubtful Sound.

Some very old trees along the dirt road to Doubtful Sound.

Stella Fall

We stopped at Wilmot Pass. The long bay ahead is Deep Cove.

A catarman cruise we boarded after arriving Doubtful Sound.

The U-shaped valley was made by glacier. During ice age, the heavy ice kept pressing the valley and deformed the valley into U shape. There are a lot of this kind of valley in the fiords in New Zealand.

Getting more windy towards the entrance of Doubtful Sound.

At the area we board on the curise, the water was calm as still water. But starting at the middle of the trip, water was getting choppy.

This picture was taken at the entrance of Doubtful Sound water. Seals were having sun bathing on rocks.

Good weather for this Doubtful Sound trip. The captain of the curise said it is not common to have calm water in this area. So the cruise had a chance to get out of Doubtful Sound and we could look back to see how "Doubtful" it is.

Looking for dolphin, but in vain.

A guy tried to hold himself by strong guts.

We came back Queenstown at evening. And we had Fergburger for our dinner.