Activity level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Modes of transportation: 🚢👟🛶 ⛴️ 🚌
We had to get out again for an early meetup: we had an 8:35AM bus to take us to the Doubtful Sound. We didn’t realize that it would be quite the journey.
The views of Lake Wakatipu and the aptly-named “The Remarkables” mountain range were spectacular on the drive up. We also had a great bus driver who gave us lots of interesting facts about the New Zealand native wildlife and conservation efforts.
Two fun facts: One, there are no mammals native to New Zealand except one very small breed of bat. Second, that means they had an incredible amount of flightless birds who evolved with no natural predators. When settlers introduced mammals, they stole all the birds’ foods, so the settlers introduced stoats and ferrets to kill the mammals (like rabbits). Well, turns out that stoats and ferrets like killing flightless birds even more than rabbits. So they’re still trying to undo that.
We also made a few new friends on the bus who also turned out to be from the US: Matt and Crystal. Also, Crystal turned out to be from New Orleans on the West Bank—small world!
We took the ferry from Te Amau, and it was a very windy day even by Fiordland standards (50-70 mph winds). They also warned us that our trip coincided with a high school field trip, so we were slightly worried. On the ferry, the school kids all went up to the top of the ship. We joined them slightly after, and when we got the top it was complete mayhem. They were all sort of flailing around, losing things left and right. They looked miserable, but nobody wanted to be the wimp that had to go back down—it was hilarious. We quickly went down into the main cabin.
Once off the ferry, we went on another bus on a road that doesn’t connect to any other roads in New Zealand. That took us over the Wilmot pass (which sounded a lot like “Walmart” pass with a New Zealand accent) and down into the fjord, where we met up with the cruise ship.
We got on the ship, got our safety briefing, and then got to our room. We spent most of the time on the top levels, on the deck and in the view galley of the ship. The captain had 20 years of experience, and maneuvered the boat right up to the faces of the fjord, getting us almost close enough to touch it. It was awesome to see waterfalls right close up.
We sailed around the fjord, checking out some of the more interesting features and waterfalls, including the point where the fjord met the sea. After cruising a little, we pulled up to a safe area, and they unloaded the kayaks. Much to Sarah’s disappointment, they were single canoes only—so she couldn’t count on Eric to paddle for her. The water was about 50 degrees, so it was a little chilly on the water; but we heated up pretty quickly paddling around.
After that, the boat did its classic polar plunge, where everyone who wanted could jump off the middle deck into the cool water. Eric put on his swim shorts and a warm top and made the plunge. Sarah got very close to jumping, but we both decided it might not be good with her hypothermia susceptibility to risk ruining the whole night, so she held off. Overall: Eric rated it a 2/10 would not recommend.
The food on the boat was buffet-style and actually pretty good. We had a few drinks with our new friends and enjoyed all the night views before heading to bed for (another) early morning.
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