Hiking Boots For Water Shoes.....

Routeburn was our last hiked booked in the south part of the South Island of New Zealand, so the next few days in Te Anau were dedicated to figuring out what our next adventures were going to be. The only schedule that we had to keep in mind is that we were booked for the Able Tasman hike starting March 2, 2010. The Able Tasman is in the very north/west part of the south island. That gave us about 2 weeks to do what we wanted to do in the south part of the South Island.

Going through some withdrawl of not hiking, we decided to cushion the blow a bit by spoiling ourselves - well, that is what we told ourselves anyways *grin*. With a bit of research, we decided to book an overnight cruise in the Doubtful Sound. This included transportation from Te Anau to the dock at Manopouri, a hour and a half boat ride across Lake Manopouri (absolutely stunning lake) to the West Arm of Doubtful Sound, another 30 minute bus ride to Deep Cove where our boat was and of course the boat tour itself in the Doubtful Sound. Wow, and that was just the start of it. And to add a bit more of the "Kiwi Way" to this experience, Delia and I were not returning to Bob and Maxine's and had nowhere to store all our gear. Because it was not possible to take it all on the small boat, Mandy; the part owner of the tour company agreed to store it for us. She agreed to pick us up directly from Bob and Maxine's in her personal car (because she was going to be in the area) and when she picked us up, we just stuffed our gear in her car and that's where it stayed until we returned.........no worries mate! The thing that you have to keep in mind and put into perspective is that, these people are technically strangers to us and are running a business.......now, just think about it for a bit.....do you think that would happen in Toronto?????or any North American city??????or a tour company??????? - most likely not! If they do it at all, which most often they don't, you are usually made to feel that it is a big inconvenience and most certainly a big fee to compensate for time and space is necessary. Kiwi's just do things for people, with no hesitation, for no compensation, just because they can and they want to!

Mandy (the organizer, office manager, driver, communicator, etc) and Richard (the Skipper) are the "husband/wife" owners of this Doubtful Sound Cruise operation. They have 1 boat and it is equipped with 4 bedrooms with en suites and a bunkroom area where 6 adults share the bed space. Kitchen, dining area, upper and lower deck for viewing along with kayaks and fishing rods for play. Although the boat can handle 14 people, we were fortunate to just have 7; a couple from Texas, a couple from Switzerland and a young English bloke. Again, we had alot of fun and meshed well with the group. Mandy did not join us on the boat, but along with Richard, we also had Jason who was the First Mate, Chef and generally did everything else other than driving the boat. We loved Jason, he was so cute and a really hard worker!

In brief, once we were on the boat, Richard took us for a tour of Doubtful Sound. It was misty, but it kinda' fit the mood of the Sound - there are sheer cliffs and endless waterfalls - it is the way it should be seen really; that's what I thought, although Delia was hoping for sun. Jason gave us all a glass of champagne and snacks to start and 1 hour later we were served lunch as we continued through the Sound. We went from Deep Cove, all the way to the entrance of the Sound from the Sea, watching the views along the way. Close to the entrance there was a seal colony that we stopped to look at - I never get tired of looking at them; seals are very entertaining, or they can be if they are not lazying around *grin*! From there we headed back in and stopped to check the traps for crayfish (aka lobster) for dinner. Unfortunately, the traps were low in stock so Richard drove down a bit further and Jason put on his scuba gear and headed about 15m down to catch our dinner - hmmmm....pretty cool, I must say. It took about 20 minutes and Jason was back up with enough crayfish for the crew. He put the crayfish in fresh water for an hour or so; it is suppose to be a more humane way to cook crayfish. The freshwater in essence, puts the crayfish to sleep and then supposedly they don't feel the pain when put in the hot boiling water....you know, somehow, as I write, it still does not seem that humane........but is no different for any other animal that I eat....ah, I digress. At this point, we did 2 things, we fished for our dinner and we kayaked - both were fun, but I really enjoyed the kayaking. Kayaking was so peaceful - no sounds (no pun intended), the water was still and the views....ah, the views. I took lots of pictures, but I will be surprised it any will give the feeling that I had when I was kayaking around - complete and utter bliss! As we played, Jason worked on dinner and what a dinner it was. Crayfish was served first. I do not eat shellfish, so I can only speculate what it tasted like. But knowing that the crayfish was just caught, the table was silent once the crayfish was served and there was nothing left of the flesh; I think I can safely say, it was great! We had our fish (I am embarrassed, but I just can't remember the name of the fish - I know it was not Blue Cod as we only caught one of those and it was too small to keep), potatoes, veggies and of course New Zealand wine. We finished off with a variety of chocolate while we drank our wine and told stories. The night was peaceful - we were in the middle of Doubtful Sound, no one else around, in a boat - gorgeous. We did see some stars and then headed for bed. The next morning, we got up at our leisure, had breakfast and headed back to Deep Cove; followed the same steps back and headed to Te Anau. The trip was relaxing, fun and dare I say again, unbelievably gorgeous - I am beginning to believe that there is not a bad place in New Zealand!