Lake Manapouri - first part of a 3 leg trip. Hydroelectric plant at head of the lake built into the mountain so very little to see above ground.

Second leg was by bus, Lake Manapouri side was very cold with heavy frost on the fir trees and undergrowth. Waterfall frozen against the rock - Willmot pass road

Doubtful sound, calm but very cold even in the sunshine. Saw dolphins at a distance and three fur seals in the water close to the boat. Even the island was something like 900 metres high

Albatross posed right by the boat, hoping for scraps. Told that this was one of the smaller varieties, still beautiful to see

Another view of the Sound

We turned into Crooked Arm, an inlet off of the Sound, Very very cold and the skipper said that we would see something unusual. Well here it is, a sheet of thin ice right across the whole inlet. Caused by a layer of rainwater, as run off from the mountains, overlaying sea water. The noises that our boat caused in breaking up the ice was incredible, and the gentle waves caused by the boat caused the ice sheet to lift and fracture all around us.

Much to the girls disgust on the boat the owner showed us a full grown Rock Lobster that they were taking back to Manapouri. Not quite in focus as the creature was clicking it's tail and trying to escape.

The next day on my drive to Dunedin "Pickfords" arrived!! Have house - will travel takes on a new meaning here in NZ.

30th June 2010

Early rise as I had to be at Pearl harbour, Manapouri for 08.45 for my Doubtful Sound trip. Involves a trip across Lake Manapouri, a bus trip up and over the mountain ridge, then another boat trip on Doubtful Sound itself.

Trip across Lake Manapouri uneventful, skipper who turned out to be the owner, gave us a running commentary of the area, the conservation efforts being made especially on the island to rid themselves of all the rodents and vermin so that indigenous species can be re-introduced and survive. At the head of the lake is a rather interesting hydroelectric power station built deep underground. Idea to build this power station started in 1904, but skills not available. It was only because an Aluminum smelter plant was going to be built that the idea was re-examined. By then conservation and awareness of the environment was an issue with the local population and sterling efforts made to limit any damage caused by the works. Whilst Bechtel was meant to build both smelter and the power station, lack of funds meant that the NZ Government undertook the power project - and probably a good thing too. One important aspect was to ensure that the water levels of the lake were maintained at the status quo, and not as originally planned - flooding the area. It took some 8 years from first investigations to Power On mode.

The trip includes a stop off at the power station, the bus drives down into the mountain and visitors are shown the generator room via a viewing gallery. One can only see the tops of the generators (7 nr) but for me most interesting was that the sides of the rock hewn cavern were left bare, only a roof had been constructed.

Back above ground the bus took us over Willmot Pass road, not that steep from the P station to the top of the pass but trees laden with hoar frost and water frozen as icicles on the rock sides. Once over the top of the pass we descended to Doubtful Sound. Trees changed from birch at the top to more temperate vegetation including the NZ tree ferns. They are everywhere and out here nobody covers their crowns during winter. Took 36 months to build Willmot Pass road in order to transport all the building equipment and machinery to the PS. These days a barge is towed up from Manapouri weekly with all their needs as well as supplies for the boat trips. We passed one that had a petrol tanker, digger, 4x4s and another lorry on it.

Transferred from bus to a bigger boat and cast off - treated to hot chocolate and biscuits. Takes about an hour and half to get to the Tasmin Sea and what stunning views. Doubtful Sound is located in Ffiordland and is really a ffiord as the sound has been made by glacial action and not river action. Saw a pod of dolphins but they not interested in us - so no photo opportunity. 3 fur seals did give us that opportunity and totally ignored the boat. Once you got 'our eye in' so to speak I saw a number of seals in the water. Once at the mouth of the Sound we cruised around a number of small rocks and islands. Not a lot to see really, did have a close encounter with one of the smaller Albatross, looking for scraps as they are scavengers. We also "saw" a Crested Penguin. I say saw as it was a blot under a rock overhang, too far away to take photo's. Even the guy with a telephoto was not sure if he had a proper shot. In a couple of weeks there will be many more of these endangered penguins as they start their breeding season. This must have been the first one to arrive back at the breeding grounds.

Very clear water around the island and the bottom cloud clearly be seen. No seals to be seen only Pied Shags who were starting to build their nests, utilising the trees on the various islands.

On our return we turned into Crooked Arm with a promise to see something different. The whole day was cold but this part of the ffiord was narrow with towering cliffs either side and extremely cold. Got some good shots of reflections of the mountains in the still water, but gradually there was a band of very still water in which one lost the reflection. Turned out to be an ice sheet, across the whole area of the ffiord, very thin but ice none the less. The skipper nosed the boat very gently into the ice sheet which crackled and crunched all around us. Great fun but as we all commented on, what would it be like on a real ice-breaker in real pack ice?

We turned around and retraced our steps back to the bus, back over Willmot Pass and onto the boat and back across Lake Manapouri. The skipper told us more about the problems they have with introduced species - red deer are quite a pest as they love the environment. The hunters used to shoot the deer and were so successful that they kept the population down. Then the European market opened up for venison so being the entrepreneurs the NZ people are they decided to catch a few and start to farm them. Only problem was how? To cull them they used a helicopter and sniper - so lets do away with the gun and comfortable chair for the sniper and get him to jump out of the aircraft and jump onto the deer!!! - called bull wacking. After some injuries etc I think the deer were darted and then transported to a farm. However at $3000 per live and good health animal people made a lot of money. Skipper also bought into the cabin a live rock lobster, bloody great thing.

Tiring day, back at the wharf at 1700 hrs. Thankfully only a 5 minute drive back to my hut, still light to chop wood and once the fire lit, was nice and cosy. Tomorrow I leave for Dunedin.

July 1st

Not a very inspiring drive, what made me laugh was the lorry moving the house, see picture above. Deer farms changed to sheep and cattle farms. Very green rolling land with smaller mountains in the background. Very few with snow on though. Feels like back to civilisation, no more single lane bridges, more traffic and even a motorway.