Doubtful Sound overnight cruise April 29-30

I think most folks just go for the day cruise, but considering how long it takes to get there without a car, I'm glad that I splurged on the overnight boat cruise. We started off with a bus ride from Queenstown to Manapouri (~50) with a stop at the Five River's cafe near the half way mark. At the visitor's centre, we boarded a boat to get across the lake, then hopped on another bus to get us to the 'cruise ship' for the next ~24 hours. It was a pretty good deal, the meals were prepared on the ship, there was lots of complimentary warm bevvies to be had and the commentary provided was quite good and informative.


As is the way of New Zealand, the weather was quite variable, alternating between sun and rain, which made for lots of rainbows as we traveled towards the Tasman sea. Everyone runs out to snap pictures of the rainbows, then runs back inside to escape the wind and the rain. There was a nature guide who gave us lots of information and pointed out landmarks as we cruised the length of the sound. The weather was variable, alternating between rain and sun. Which made for a whole bunch of rainbows. Soup was served at ~15:30 and warmed us up nicely after being out in the rain.

We found a nice place to stop for the kayaking trip, but we were only in the boats for about 30 mins (other folks were getting cold). I was glad I had my gortex trousers to keep me dry despite the paddle dribbles. My hands, however, may have been red with cold. Despite the icy digits, when told we could go in for a swim, you'd better believe I was the first one in. I swore to myself, no matter how... brisk... the waters were, I would not gasp when I broke the surface post-dive. My performance was SO convincing that the Italian fellow who followed thought the waters would be warm. Mwahahahahahahaha!It was seriously frosty, though, took my breath away for what felt like two minutes. Once I was back onboard, I had a hot shower and got ready for dinner.


What a spread! There was certainly no way I was going to go hungry on this boat. I was glad there were lots of hiking trails in Wanaka to help with burning off the calories I ate. I managed to get myself a free beer due to poor bookkeeping by one of the bar tenders. Cha-CHING!  I had a blast with a couple of Scottish gals who were over after one of them was working in Aussie. They were a hoot. The evening concluded with a short nature presentation, then we piled into our wee bunks and went to sleep. Well, I tried to sleep, but the woman who was sawing logs on the top bunk made that hard.

I didn't sleep as well as I'd hoped, thanks to the lady snoring on the top bunk across from me. The giant breakfast made up for it and cheered my mood. The morning was brisk, but not raining. Sadly I had to cave and wear my boots instead of flip flops (apparently it was worth commenting on by the rest of the passengers. :P) I didn't wear my raincoat, though, it wasn't all *that* cold. At one point we stopped, turned off the engines and just listened. It was so peaceful. If I had unlimited funds, I'd love to go back and kayak there. I think it would be spectacular. We saw some Fijordland Crested penguins, but they were too quick for my camera.