International Trip to Doubtful Sound 2019

We arrived at school at 5:45 am to take the van for the trip.  We drove for 4 hours to Te Anau.  There was a fantastic sunrise on the way, and we stopped to take some pictures.  When we got to Te Anau, we visited a wildlife park and saw some native birds, including some Takahe and Kaka.  It was the first time we had seen these birds!

When we got to our destination at Lake Manapouri, we boarded a boat and spent an hour going across the lake to Wilmot Pass.  There, we got a bus across the pass and had a nature guide explain about the wild and rugged terrain, and wildlife found here in Fiordland.  

We arrived at Deep Cove and boarded our ship, the Fiordland Navigator.  We sailed out to the open Tasman sea.  It was very cloudy and rainy, but the waterfalls were spectacular. There were yummy delicious food on board and awesome water activities like kayaking, and a nature tour on the small tender boats.  

That evening we had an excellent buffet dinner of lots of different salads, meats, seafood and salad/veges.  Some of it was really SPICY!!!  Then came out the deserts.  Lots of deserts.  And cheese!!!  That night we stayed up and played card games.  

The next morning, we sailed up Hall Arm and did the 'Silence of Nature'.  This was where we turned off the boat's engines and listened to nature.  After 5 minutes, we nosed the boat under a waterfall and were able to collect glasses of water to drink.  It is some of the freshest water in the world as it passes through the sphagnum moss, which has to sterilise properties.  We found out that sphagnum moss was widely used as a field dressing during the world wars, due to its antiseptic properties.

 We then made our way back to Deep Cove and continued the trip in reverse back home to Dunedin, stopping at Gore for fish and chips on the way. 

This trip was awesome - a 10/10.  I did not expect this trip to be such a wonder.  Bored?  Play some cards with the friendly others on board, or you can have a little breeze on the front deck (Especially in such wet and windy weather).  Thank you to Mr Mountain for taking us.  Bravo, Doubtful Sound, bravo.