Overnight Cruise on Doubtful Sound

One of the first things I wanted to do after I left Milford was go on an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound. Doubtful Sound is another fjord within Fiordland National Park that is located south of Milford Sound. It is ten times the size of Milford Sound so an overnight cruise is the best way to explore the entire fjord. It is much more remote than Milford Sound since there is no road connecting it to the rest of the world. In order to get to Doubtful Sound, one must take a boat over Lake Manapouri, then a bus over Wilmot Pass to get to your cruise boat that is harbored in Deep Cove. The fjord has three arms– two of which were explored on our cruise– and it connects to Bradshaw Sound, at the end of which is where we anchored for the night.

We stayed the night before at the Te Anau Lake View Holiday Park in our campervan. It was the first time ever that we slept in our van. It is not the biggest campervan on the planet, but it is the perfect medium for versatility and comfort.


From Te Anau, it was only a 20-minute drive to Manapouri where the Real Journeys office is located (and our departure point). This is the first boat we took. It was about a 45-minute boat ride in this thing, which cruised at about 25 knots, to the west arm power station and visitor center.


The captain behind me was named Andrew. He kind of looked like the Andrew who sings for Fatt Finger, the Chicago band I used to play in.


This picture is from the top deck of that boat. Andrea’s hair is demonstrating why Andrew warned everyone to hold onto their hats.


This is the power station that sucks water from Lake Manapouri under the mountain, and drains into Deep Cove of Doubtful Sound to create electricity. You can take a tour of the power station, but it wasn’t included on our trip; it’s only included on the day cruises.


This is the bus that took us over Wilmot Pass. I was sad it wasn’t one of the Real Journeys buses that looks like a caterpillar.


Here we are on the look-out from Wilmot Pass looking down at Deep Cove of Doubtful Sound.


This is our cruise boat. It was the perfect size. Still fun to explore, but not so big that you feel like you are on a cattle drive. I think it had between 6 and 8 doubles, the same amount of twins, and maybe four quad rooms.


This is Andrea and my room. Real Journeys gave me a great discount for being such a good salesman or whatever. We had our own bathroom complete with shower, toilet that made interesting mechanical noises when flushed, and a sink so tiny it was impossible to wash your face without getting water all over the floor.


This is the view from our door down the deck.


Real Journeys has an open bridge policy so anyone can walk onto the bridge at any time and talk to the captain and ask him questions.


Here Andrea and I are enjoying the sun... and wind.


This is Andrea sitting next to the nature guide. Periodically throughout the cruise, he would comment on what we were seeing, talking into his cordless microphone. He would mostly sit on the front deck or stand on the bridge. The captain of the ship would also make comments.

Later that afternoon, we stopped at the end of the Crooked Arm of Doubtful Sound and went kayaking for about 45 minutes. The crew hauled a bunch of kayaks over the back of the ship and we stepped into them. It was funny because our personal crafts didn’t have any rudder, nor did we get any direction on how to control them, so we were bouncing off of each other and zig-zagging along the shore. It was a great way to break the ice between strangers.

After kayaking, people went swimming, but I couldn’t get myself to do it. It was so cold and I couldn’t imagine jumping in without a warm sun or sauna to warm me up immediately afterward. I was pretty exhausted after kayaking so we took a short 30-minute nap that probably turned into an hour nap.


When we woke up, we immerged on deck to find that the sales were unrolled for some reason. I don’t really understand how they could provide any thrust considering there was no boom and I’m not sure if the boat had a keel. They looked pretty cool though.


Dinner was a delicious buffet of pasta, salad, tartlets, freshly cut beef and lamb, and much more. We bought a bottle of Montana Pinot Noir, which we enjoyed. After dinner, the nature guide gave a slide show about the wildlife of Fiordland. It was very interesting. I didn’t want to interrupt him with camera flashes so I took this picture after his presentation was done. This room is the “observation lounge,” which is located right below the bridge. It was a good place to look out at the fjord the next day when it was rainy. It also had a screen that showed our GPS location with a line that showed where we had already sailed.

After the slide show, we watched Grumpier Old Men on my laptop and went to bed.


The next morning we were awoken at 6:30 by the engines firing up and had to get up to eat breakfast because it was only served between 7:00 and 8:00.


It was a delicious continental breakfast with creamy, garlic scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, baked beans, and fluffy, crispy croissants. Once we were done with breakfast, our beds were already being turned over so we couldn’t go back to bed, but I’m glad we didn’t because there was more of the fjord to see.


This is at the end of Hall Arm. We stopped there, turned off the engines, and everyone stood in silence for a few minutes to get a sense of our remoteness and take in the sounds of nature.


Here our nature guide stood out in the rain by himself. I thought it was funny how no one else was out there with him. We all stayed warm and dry as he spoke to us over the loud speakers around the ship through his wireless microphone. He was kiwi and really enjoyed making fun of Australia. It was funny.


Here is our ship the Fiordland Navigator anchored at Deep Cove after our cruise was complete.

Here Andrea is looking adorable in front of the display in the visitor center at the West Arm Power Station waiting to board our boat to take us back to Manapouri.

The overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound was truly wonderful! It was one of those things you only get to do once– where you are pampered and feel like royalty, just for a day. Andrea and I agreed that we didn’t want it to end and we were thinking of hiding somewhere on the ship living there as phantoms that haunt it at nighttime by eating their food, drinking their booze, and playing the piano.