Day 23: Rest day in Manapouri

Journal for 2014-11-11 | Published on 2014-11-10 23:02:24

It is difficult to describe the incredible beauty we witnessed today, but I will try. We woke up very early, around 6 am, and made some breakfast before getting ready and heading down to the dock where our tour was to begin.

We took a few moments to admire the clear water of Manapouri Lake, and followed the trail past the dock where the power station workers leave for work every day. Then it was simply a matter of getting our tickets from our tour operator, Real Journeys, picking up our picnic lunches, and embarking on the first boat of the day: a catamaran that would take us across the Manapouri Lake. The clouds were low, and there was a bit of a mist falling out of the air, but the sun was also peeking through every once in a while.

When they let us onboard, we found our ideal spot: up top, out on the observation deck. The boat left the dock, and as we came around the corner, we were greeted with stunning views of snow-capped peaks slightly hidden behind low clouds. We passed some sizeable islands, and were reminded why the Maoris initially called the lake “Lake of Many Islands.” From every side of the boat a new view opened up: of steep cliff faces covered in trees and vegetation, waterfalls cascading down to the lake below, snow covered mountain tops. Sometimes it was difficult to choose what to look at. And this was just the crossover of the lake, before the tour of the Sound!

Eventually, we made it to the other side of the lake, and came into view of the power station. Well, the above ground portion, anyways. The power station is 2km below the mountain, but we could see result of all that power generation. The really cool thing about this power scheme is that many years ago, they needed power for an aluminum smelter down in Bluff, so they were going to put in a dam and a hydro-plant, but their original plan would have raised the level of both lakes Manapouri and Te Anau, and the people protested. Well, a compromise was reached, and the lake levels stayed within there natural levels, and the power station was built using these restrictions.

After the boat ride, we got to see the visitor’s center for the power station, but there is maintenance going on so we didn’t get to tour the station, darn. Oh, well, we loaded onto busses and headed over the mountain about 20 km to Doubtful Sound. The clouds were quite low, so we didn’t get very expansive views, but what we could see was quite amazing. There are quite a few permanent waterfalls, and lots of temporary ones, too, from all the recent rains. The road we rode on was built when they were building the power station, and is maintained by the government, now. It’s quite windy and twisty, but I (Pam) didn’t encounter any motion sickness on the ride there.

Finally, we reached the catamaran for our tour through Doubtful Sound. And then began an amazing journey through the fjord, with sheer cliffs, cascading waterfalls, penguins, seals (really sea lions) and birds galore. We spent 3 hours out on the water, traveled down the entire sound until we reached the Tasman Sea, went out a little ways to see the fur seals on the rocks, and then turned around and came back up the sound.

The neat thing about the fjord is the color of the water: brown. This is caused by all the water that falls on the mountains, it picks up tannins from the dead foliage and brings it down to the sound. The freshwater doesn’t mix much with the salt water, and so there’s a layer of about 4 meters of brown freshwater sitting on top of the salty seawater. Because the water is so dark on top, it creates a unique ecosystem in the saltwater: the lack of light that filters down allows for corals that would normally grow in much deeper water to thrive. Many people dive in these sounds in order to see corals they would never be able to dive deep enough to see. Very cool!

It’s impossible to describe everything we saw today. It was an amazing 3 hours. My favorite part was when we went up a side channel, and the captain turned off the engines, and everyone stayed really quiet, and we could listen to the sound of the fjord. I could hear water falling, birds singing, and a quiet that you just can’t find easily anywhere else in the world. It was incredible.

Matt’s favorite part was when we rode out into the Tasman Sea, and then turned around and started heading back into the Sound. We were on the bow of the boat with the sound stretching before us and large Fjords raising out of the water with dense forests and temporary waterfalls streaming down them. You could imagine that this is what Captain James Cook saw when he first laid eyes on the Sound. That first journey of his, they didn’t go far up into the Sound, which is why it is called “Doubtful”. He was doubtful that there was a good harbor there.

The only downside for me was that I got a little seasick, especially when we were close to the Sea. It went away (mostly) after we went back into the calmer Sound. But then, we had a bus ride back to the lake, and the driver seemed determined to make me ill. He very nearly succeeded, and it took all my concentration not to throw up. But I was successful in keeping my lunch down. And we got to stop at the outlet tunnels of the power plant on the way back, which was really cool. There were two tunnels, one drilled by hand (with dynamite and the like) and another drilled using a drilling machine. The second had a diameter of 10 meters.

After the bus ride, finally we boarded the boat for the last ride across the lake. This was when it really started raining, and it seems like we got to experience all 4 seasons in the same day.

We got back to port, walked back to our cabin, and after a little laundry, took a walk around the town. We watched the clouds cover, then uncover, then recover the mountains. The weather is so changeable here, which I suppose is normal. It actually cuts down on the number of tourists willing to brave the cold, so Matt and I have no complaints. Our tour was about half capacity, so we had plenty of room to move about and go wherever we wanted throughout the boat.

Our plan is to ride to Te Anau in the morning, which is just about 22 km away, and we have booked a tour to see the caves with the glow worms for the afternoon. I’m pretty excited about that. Then, the next day we have a tour of Milford Sound planned, and I guess it’s a good thing we’ve booked the tour, because they’ve closed the road to the Sound down for cars without chains…I’d rather not have to do that on a bicycle.