What is a fjord? Basically it is a really steep mountain range which has its base in water. The mountains and valley are carved out from a glacier activity and once the glacier melts away, the water inlet back fills the valley. Why is Doubtful Sound called a Sound instead of Doubtful Fjord. Who knows? Clearly the person who named it was not a geologist. Regardless, it is one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen.
We left our condo super early to drive from Wanaka to get to the ferry in Manapouri that would take us to the boat for our overnight cruise through Doubtful Sound. When we arrived we checked in and found out that we could pick up our picnic lunch at the deli next to the office. When researching this activity, I saw that we had an optional picnic lunch available as an add-on for the first day. When I read the description, I envisioned sitting on the deck of the boat watching mountains go by as waterfalls cascade down into the fjord around us while munching on a sandwich or delicious cookies – it was a romantic vision. And then we came to reality. First, I have learned that any time a tour tries to add on a meal and designates it as optional, it will be more expensive that if you just pay for it on site and will be pre-set (versus choosing based on how you feel that day). If a meal is optional, then that means there will be alternative choices available for people who chose not to prepurchase. It does not mean that you will starve to death because you didn’t have the foresight to pay for the food early. Additionally, the company will charge you more for the food than if you just buy it at the deli due to “processing fees” and what not. When we received our food we took it to a grassy area outside of the deli and sat among ducks that learned that if they try to bite you it’s likely that you’ll drop your lunch and run. Ducks also poo on the ground. This did not quit live up to the romantic picnic lunch in my mind. Additionally, when you designate “no mushrooms” as a comment in the food allergies section that means you have very significant food allergies beyond mushrooms and in fact can not eat meat. See Warren’s lunch. Where I had 2 sandwiches (not just 1, but 2), fruit, cookies, chocolates, crackers and cheese, etc in my lunch, Warren had one sad meatless sandwich and a cookie that looked more like solidified vomit from a granola eating hippy. Glad I got the non-restricted diet meal option!
Next lesson: when the ferry captain says hold on to your stuff if you’re sitting on the top deck of the boat because it might get a little windy, move inside immediately. Again, my romantic vision was finishing my lunch on the deck of the ferry as we went across Manapouri lake to our final destination with a light wind in my hair pointing at little sea creatures as they hop out of the water and dance around the boat. Wrong. Now picture 40 MPH wind blowing against your face as we travel 40 knots racing across the lake. The moment the girls designer sunglasses flew off her face, whizzed by mine, shattered on the deck throwing pieces everywhere and skidded into the water was when I grabbed all of my belongs, clutching them and my sunglasses for dear life, and I quickly moved inside the boat to avoid being blown off myself. Close call.
We then had to take a bus over the Wilmot Pass to what I like to think of as heaven. It was beautiful. We came over the pass into the fjord and saw towering mountains shooting out of a massive expanse of water with little wispy clouds kissing their peaks. We jumped off the bus and onto the 70 passenger boat to get escorted to our cabin (which had a window that looked out side). It was great. After we got settled we explored the boat to discover where all we could adventure to over the next 24 hours. While we were walking around we noticed a lot of very young people which questionable taste in clothing and fashion sitting around playing board games inside at the dinner tables. This is where they would sit for the entire trip.
As it ends up, 60 of the 70 people on our tour were part of a Contiki-like tour group. Most likely their rich parents paid for the trip, and they could care less that they were floating through one of the most unique and beautiful places in the world. They would rather sit and recover from their hangover from the night before. And that was just fine with us because that effectively meant that we had a 1:10 ratio of staff to travelers and the nature guide sat with us the entire trip to talk about the unique geology of the Sound. Also, it meant that there was no competition for the tender craft when we went out to look at the unique wild life (no one under the age of 50 was on the tender craft with us). We went around the little islands and got up close to see the flora and fauna of the fjord. We were also able to get very close to a few very cute Fiordland penguins, one of the rarest birds in the world, which call this place home. The cruise traveled down the fingers of the fjord out to the Tasman Sea, during which we saw lots of penguins and a giant seal colony. 
After turning around to return to a quiet cove to drop anchor before dinner, Warren and I decided to go talk to the captain in the steer house. When we were sitting there, he went to put the sails down and yelled over – can you steer for me for a bit. Warren jumped up and took over, as he was feeling confident from how well he steered on our cruise in the Whitsundays. Little did he know we were passing our right hand turn, and we were past it when the captain yelled out – take a hard right. Warren took the hard right at the same time tipping the boat to a 45 degree angle on its side. The captain was like, oh man, the kitchen is going to be annoyed and 2 seconds later they called up to complain that pots and pans when sliding everywhere, drinks slide off of the dinner tables, and a person on the staff even fell over. Ooops! Needless to say, the captain took over for Warren and didn’t extend a full time position to him. (Note from Warren: On the radar map, there were two routes to go. One slight right turn and one hard right turn. The captain wasn't very clear to me that we had to take the hard one until we were right up on it and then he told me to turn HARD. so I did.)The size of the fjord could really be comprehended until you saw a boat next to the mountain. It made the vessel look like a little toy boat floating in a massive bath tub. Without that point of comparison, it was just beautiful. With the boats in the picture, the fjord was breathtaking and almost uncomprehendable.
We had a nice buffet dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening. There was a nature slide show and games before we went to sleep, knowing that we’d get an early wake up call in the morning once the anchor was raised. In the morning there was a nice buffet breakfast and we returned the way we sailed down before boarding the bus to return us to the ferry around 11 am. Needless to say, we sat inside for the return trip on the ferry.
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