Incredibly high rocky ridges with serrated skylines, sections of snow and ice scattered about on the highest points, and tall, dark, wet, mossy beech forests clinging tenuously to the sheer granite slopes.
It took longer to get there than Milford Sound, but it was well worth it. First we drove the twenty minutes South to Lake Manapori then took a boat across that beautiful body of water. Rod thought that Manapori held an even greater beauty than Te Anau with its dramatic mountains reaching sharply right down to the water’s edge. The rugged escarpments towered high above the lake and the forests were stunning.
After arriving at the other side of the lake where a hydro electric power station sits we boarded a bus that drove us up over a steep mountain pass and down the other side to the huge fiord. That journey in itself was a wonderful adventure and well worth it.
The boat that we boarded at the fiord was roomy and comfortable with a large deck topside for us to view the majesty and glory of Doubtful Sound. When the chill wind became too much we could retreat to the roomy and comfortable cabin below to view all the glory and stupendous sights through wide clean windows.
The long journey through the winding passages of that huge body of water took us past multiple waterfalls and bedazzled us with the gigantic landscape. We looked on in awe at forests and mountains that had remained untouched and unchanged over the millenia, and appeared just as it was when the first humans arrived 5000 years ago.
Doubtful is much larger than Milford and yet it is just as grandiose. We really enjoyed the full day of wonders.
Click to enlarge then scroll the panorama
Very impressive.
A long, long time ago Australia had mountains like that, but they’re all long since eroded away.
It’s just so spectacular and beautiful