With a long day ahead, the first thing we did when we got out of bed was look out the window. Still dreary and rainy, darn it! We couldn’t do anything about the weather, though, so we left Te Anau at 8:00 a.m. for the short drive to Manapouri. We had packed some snacks for our cruise, but we stopped at a shop once we arrived in Manapouri for sandwiches. A few minutes later, we presented ourselves at the Fiordland Charters office and waited for the courtesy coach to arrive with the others who would be cruising with us.

Around 9:15 a.m., we all walked down to Lake Manapouri and boarded the boat that would take us to the Manapouri Power Station. This was the first part of our Doubtful Sound trip. The boat ride took about 50 minutes, and taking pictures involved going out in the rain. However, we did manage to get a few good pictures during the trip across the lake:



Once we reached the other side of the lake, we hung out in the Visitor’s Centre, entertained by a kea, NZ's alpine parrot who seems to be the Fiordland mascot, looking for a snack. After about a 15-minute wait, a bus appeared and took us to the power station. The history behind the Manapouri Power Station, and its relationship to Lake Manapouri, the environmental movement in New Zealand, and opening Doubtful Sound to tourism, is a fascinating one. Descending over 200m underground can be pretty unnerving; one member of our group decided to wait at the Visitor’s Centre. We took the 2 km spiral down into the station in our bus:




Our guide Nigel told us that if we continued in the same fashion for another 11 km, we would be following the water into Doubtful Sound. Of course, that wasn't going to happen, because Meridian Energy and its customers would not appreciate having the power-generating turbines sit inactive for a few hours.

The tour ended, and we picked up the other pax at the Visitor’s Centre before heading to Deep Cove, the place where we would board out boat for Doubtful Sound. The drive took about 45 minutes, including stops for pictures at a few waterfalls. I got out at each opportunity, because this bus offered the tightest seating I have ever experienced. Without any lasting damage to my aging body, we arrived at Deep Cove and boarded our boat.

The weather was just as rainy on this side of Wilmot Pass as it was on the other. The rain never ended, and that affected what we were able to see. However, it also gave us the opportunity to get some pretty spooky views of the sound:



as well as see a lot more waterfalls than the average group sailing into Doubtful Sound gets to see:





Getting good photos required going up top and getting wet. Really wet, as in soaked through and through. Eventually, I got to the point that I didn’t care how wet I got, but whenever my camera’s lens got wet, it affected my ability to get good pictures.

Every time I swore I had taken my last pictures—after all, there are so many pictures of waterfalls one can take—I found myself lured outside again to take more. Even in rain and with limited visibility, Doubtful Sound is spectacular. We pulled back into Deep Cove around 4:00 p.m. and piled back onto the sardine bus again. We made detours by the place where the water from the power station enters the sound, and at Wilmot Pass for one last look at Doubtful Sound:



Back at the Visitor’s Centre, we took a break before getting on the boat back to Manapouri. We arrived a little after 5:30 p.m. Mr. FB and I drove back to Te Anau, stopping for dinner at La Toscana Pizzeria and Spaghetteria on Town Centre. The food was delicious and a great value. Finding pecan pie on a menu in New Zealand was a pleasant surprise for this Southern fellow. However, the service was a bit slow, perhaps because the restaurant filled and there were only two waitresses to take care of everyone.

After dinner, we filled our car with gas again, hoping that conditions would allow us to visit the region’s other famous fiord on Tuesday.