#42 - Doubtful Sound

You can’t go to the South Island without visiting the fjords and taking a boat out to the Sounds.  This little piece of heaven leaves a lasting impression on the brain and tingles the senses.  The best known and most visited of the fjords is Milford Sound. We had been there several years ago, so we opted to visit a less crowded area called Doubtful Sound.  

Doubtful Sound is larger and deeper than Milford Sound.  Many different forms of wildlife can be spotted here and several majestic waterfalls can be viewed even in the drier season.  

But it’s not easy to get there.  Two and a half hours by car south of Queenstown one comes to a small town called Te Anau.  From there we took a short bus ride to Lake Manapouri.  We traversed the lake in a very comfortable boat for about an hour.  Waiting for us there was a bus that took us over the rugged Wilmot Pass through the primitive forest over to Doubtful Sound where we boarded another boat to take us through the Sound out to the Tasman Sea.

So does the word “remote” come to mind?  

If you’ve ever seen a documentary about the fjords, then you’ll know that there are no words to fully describe the majesty of this part of the world.  It is physically untouched by man and evokes a feeling of solitude and serenity.  The Maori name for Doubtful Sound is Patea, which translated means “the place of silence”.

So here are some interesting facts about this area.  If you’re not in the mood for a few “wows”, compliments of Mother Nature, just skip the rest of this blog.  

In previous blogs I’ve commented on how devastating it can be when non-native species are introduced into the environment.  Well, fear not.  This area is unique in that it has only native trees.  These very same types of trees have been here for 80 million years with no introduction of anything that is not native.  There has been no genetic modification.  It’s kind of eerie riding along knowing that what you see today looks exactly like what you would have seen in the Mesozoic Age.

The next time you see some moss, you may want to pay homage.  For without moss there would be no forest.  There are over 1000 mosses and lichens here that absorb moisture and are nutrient rich.  They provide the base for trees and shrubs to grow.  The trees would have a tough time growing just on rocks.

This is one of the wettest places on earth with an average of over 200 days a year of rain. The skies deliver around 21-27 feet (not inches) of rain which makes the waterfalls look amazing.  

When they blasted out the mountain to make the road connecting the Lake to the Sound, all living vegetation was destroyed.  But Mother Nature “healed” the area.  It is now replete with beech trees, each of which is a home for 200 other species of plant life.  This lends new meaning to the expression “Life is a beech”.  

Did you know salt water and fresh water don’t mix?  Not here anyway.  About 18-24 feet of fresh water falls down from the mountains on top of the sea water.  The two layers don’t mix and the top layer is stained from forest floor run-off.  The result is dark water on top and so certain species that would only live normally in deep water can be found just ten meters below the surface here.  

Why did Captain Cook name this place Doubtful Sound?  He explored the area and because there were so many arms to the sound he had doubts about ever being able to come back and find the same locations again.  

We didn’t see too much wildlife until we got out to the end of the Sound into the Tasman Sea where we saw several fur seals sitting on the rocks much to our delight!   This is once again a situation where the photos don’t do the subject justice.  

View of Doubtful Sound from the Untouched Forest