Doubtful Sound

"Stranded on a South Pacific Island"

We had heard that Doubtful Sound in Fiordland National Park in New Zealand was one of the most beautiful places in NZ and in the world, however, we could only get there by charter boat and bus through a perilous mountain pass. Sounded like an adventure to us! It was rainy and foggy the morning we left Te Ananu (the small town we were staying in)to drive to Pearl Harbor (another small town) to get on the charter boat. Doug wanted and we did take the cheaper and smaller tour. Our was $130 and the other $165 nz.

We boarded the boat along with 11 other tourists from the US, Germany, Canada, and Tasmania. The boat was very small, but our captain and owner Nigel, was very nice and seemed to know what he was doing. The boat ride across the lake was to connect wiwith a bus to cross a mountain pass and on to Doubtful Sound for another boat ride. the boat ride was about 30 minutes. The scenery was breathtaking with giant glaciers and mountains cascading into the water. Needless to say, it was cold. Nancy had on two pair of socks, gloves and a warm sweater and polartec coat and Doug was bundled up as well. When we got to the bus, there seemed to be no heat. We continued on up a steep, gravel road that ultimately turned into a snow covered road. The road was only big enough for one car or bus and you would not want to meet another vehicle on the road- no guard rails and steep cliffs.

The scenery was very interesting and beautiful with rainforest-like plants near the bottom of the mountain covered with snow and evergreen and shrub as we reached higher altitudes. We stopped about half-way up the mountain and the captain put chains on the tires. We knew then we were headed into real snow country. There were two full size buses behind us from the $165 tour carrying folks who had signed on with a bigger tour group to Doubtful Sound and were traveling on a bigger boat than us and paid more than us. We liked being with the smaller group and it was exciting. Next thing we know, our bus broke traction on a downward sloop and thankfully hit the ditch on the mountainside of the road. Of course, if we had not hit the mountain, we would have gone off the "cliff-side," and would not be here to tell the story!

We had to wait what seemed like an eternity (about 1 hour) for the bus behind us to assist in pulling us out of the ditch. All of us tourists played in the snow and took pictures while our able captain worked to free us from our dilemma. We finally got out and headed up the mountain to a place where we could turn around.One of the other big buses got stuck as well. All together we were about 3 hours on the mountain with no heat. We were not able to get to Doubtful Sound that day due to the snow. But, we could try again the next day. And, so we did.

The next day, we again traveled to Pearl Harbor to get on the boat and took the beautiful boat ride to the bus to head back up the snowy mountain to Doubtful Sound. This time it appeared again we would not make it as it was very icy. But, our able captain, Nigel, drove on and got us to Doubtful Sound. However, the two big bus tours did not make it through again and they turned back. It was exciting finally making it over the pass, but also scary in that we had no one to help us if we got stuck again. Once we got to the second boat moored at Doubtful Sound, we had a beautiful boat trip among big glacial mountains with hundreds of waterfalls cascading into the sound. We were only 25 km from the epicenter of the 7.1 earthquake that had occured the week before. We saw places on the mountains in Doubtful Sound where the trees were loosened by the earthquake and had fallen into the water. We saw penquins and seals and unusual birds as we drifted along in the water. It was rainy and foggy, but so beautiful. We were so glad to have made it to Doubtful Sound.

Two years ago, when we were in Norway on the way to the fiords there, we had car trouble and almost didn't make it. It is interesting that we were in Fiordland National Park where Doubtful Sound is located, when again, we experienced peril. The Fiords are so beautiful, but we have experienced the unexpected both times we have visited fiords in two separate parts of the world-Norway and New Zealand.