Manapouri, NZ

Thursday, March 12

Andi woke up early this morning to try his hand at fishing once more at Moke Lake. No luck — but it was a gorgeous, quiet morning in the country. After Tory and Aden were awake and we had breakfast, we decided to make the 15 minute drive back into Queenstown so we could buy groceries and do school with internet access. Fun fact! Grocery store parking lots have great internet signal. Andi did the shopping while the kids and I stayed behind in the RV and did our school work.

Next, we headed south toward the town of Manapouri. Manapouri is located on the edge of Fiordland National Park and is the gateway for Doubtful Sound cruises which was the purpose of our visit. Most tourists visiting New Zealand see Milford Sound which is the only fjord accessible by roadway, but the road is currently washed-out after heavy rain earlier this year. The only way to access Milford Sound now is by taking an all-day bus charter. Andi and I though the Doubtful Sound trip seemed more like our jam. It also required a boat ride and a bus trip over the mountain pass, but was shorter in length overall.

There’s only one campground in Manapouri and it wasn’t very big. I’m glad we thought ahead to book a site before we arrived. It was a nicely kept and located right on the shores of Lake Manapouri. The California family we met in Fox Glacier also booked the same Doubtful Sound cruise, so we could all go together. Aden was so excited for his buddy Archer to arrive at the campground that afternoon.

Shortly after we checked into our spot, Katie, Mike, Archer and Teddy arrived. We grabbed drinks and walked down to the beach for a sunset happy hour. The kids happily played on the rocks and threw pebbles into the water while the adults chatted nearby. It was one of our favorite evenings so far on our whole trip.

For dinner, we all decided to walk up the street to The Church which is the local restaurant in town. Andi and Mike took the kids to play on the playground across the street while Katie and I sat at the outdoor picnic table and talked. Our food came, and we all ate together outside.

Friday, March 13

There are 14 fjords on New Zealand’s South Island Fiordland, and Doubtful Sound is the second longest and the deepest fjord of them all. The fjords were created by glaciers 100,000 years ago which carved out the mountains. When the glacier ice melted, the Tasman Sea came in and filled the fjord with water. What makes New Zealand’s Fjordland so unique is that people can’t travel there on their own. Its a haven for nature as it’s relatively untouched by humans. The only way to access Doubtful Sound is by using a charter boat company which takes passengers on tours daily.

Tory, Aden and I took time early Friday morning to learn about fjords, and specifically what we might see in Doubtful Sound today. At 10:00am, we parked our RV on the side of the road and walked to the Manapouri ferry station a block away. The first part of our tour required us to take a ferry boat from the east side of Lake Manapouri to the west. The boat ride took about an hour, and was pleasant inside. We had a gorgeous weather day for visiting the fjord — maybe one of the best days all year! It was sunny and 65 degrees outside. Doubtful Sounds receives a huge amount of rainfall each year — up to 240 inches — so we considered ourselves lucky to have gorgeous sunny views.

On the west side of Lake Manapouri, we boarded a charter bus that drove us over the mountain pass. I was worried about this part as I tend to get car sick, but the ride was smooth and well organized. The driver shared facts about Fiordland during the 40 minute drive. We also stopped at a lookout point over Doubtful Sound so we could get a birds eye view. This ended up being the best photograph we captured of the fjord. It was one of those things in life that’s too beautiful and too massive to capture accurately with a camera lens.

Once we reached Doubtful Sound, we boarded another ferry boat to see the fjord. Andi brought a cooler with snack lunch items for our family, so we found a table inside the boat and ate lunch. We could have purchased boxed lunches from the tour company or purchased food & drink items on the boat, which seemed to be what most people did.

Outside, it was super windy on the boat deck, so our group alternated between taking the kids outside for a bit to see the view and sitting inside the cabin and watching through the windows. It was nice that the boat wasn’t overcrowded and there was plenty of space to sit and enjoy the tour.

My favorite part of the day was when the boat captain turned off the boat in a sheltered part of Doubtful Sound and encouraged everyone to stand outside. It was quiet and peaceful — truly not another sound to be heard — and our surroundings were gorgeous. Huge cliffs towered on all three sides of the boat. In that moment, you could feel how deep and narrow the fjord was all around us.

After 2 1/2 hours in Doubtful Sound, we loaded back on the charter bus to make the same return trip back to Manapouri. I’m so glad our new friends Mike, Katie, Archer and Teddy joined us. It made the travel time fly by as we all enjoyed each other’s company. We were sad to say good-bye to them after the Doubtful Sound tour ended. From there, our two families were heading in different directions. Aden and Archer were especially heartbroken and Aden wanted to know when we’d see them again. “Someday our travel paths might cross again,” I told him. I hope they do.

It was 5:30pm by the time we got back to our RV and Andi and I didn’t feel like driving far. We decide to stay the night in the nearby town of Te Anau, about 20 minutes away. We arrived at the Top 10 Holiday Park there around dinnertime and found our spot for the night. Andi made dinner in the community kitchen while Tory and Aden played on the bouncy pillow at the playground. This campground is walking distance from town so tomorrow we look forward to checking out the town of Te Anau.