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10.02.11 Mount Cook to Manapouri
We left Mount Cook, White Horse Hill Campsite, at 8am. The sun was shining on the mountains and visibility was clear all round. We called at Twizel just to see what it is like….small, clean and tidy!!! We stopped for coffee overlooking lake Dunstan North of Cromwell where we stopped at our favourite New World Supermarket and stocked up for the next few days. The next part of the drive took us through The Kawarau Gorge an old gold mining area. We skirted the Lake at Queenstown, and lunched like Lords overlooking Lake Wakatipu just South of Queenstown, past Carlin Creek at Wharf Vista. The road from Kingston to Manapouri passed through pasture land for sheep, cows and deer. This area claims to produce 76% of the worlds venison.
On arrival at Manapouri we went straight to the port office, to check out the weather and availability on the Doubtful Sound Cruises. We ended up after much negotiation on Damian's part getting pensioner rates on a 3 event deal. So, tomorrow at 9.45am we go on the full day explorer trip by boat across Lake Manipuri to West Arm Manapouri Power Station, tour it, then by bus over the Wilmot Pass to Deep Cove, and by boat from Deep Cove through Doubtful Sound and weather permitting out to the Tasman Sea. We will return at 5.15pm. As part of our super saver deal we will visit the Te Anau Glow Worm Caves on Saturday at 4.30pm, and a week on Sunday we will cruise on Milford Sound…and all for the price of one advertised trip, and less than half the price of our English travel agents advertised price for the Doubtful Sound Trip.
Feeling very pleased with ourselves we found a campsite overlooking the Lake and settled intomaking supper, charging up our cameras, phones and laptops, and doing our washing. This site is called The Manapouri Holiday Park, and was started circa 1920. It has a whole collection of old Morris cars scattered about the place (I mean about 30 or more) and is very quirky, with small sheds on bricks that have belonged to families for years, a bit like our beach huts. There are plenty of old photos of the VW Camper Van days and various photos of the Power Station Builders and their families.
11.02.11 Doubtful Sound Day Cruise
Well, what can I say. We woke up to a beautiful day, mist rising, sun and clouds but no rain. Apparently it rains 5,290mm a year at Deep Cove, that is 3 days out of 5. Today it was not raining and it was not windy..wowee. The sound was as I imagined it, dramatic, everchanging, forested down to the water and up to 1000m. For me the most exciting part was that we were able to go out into The Tasman Sea, which so rarely happens because of the strong winds and waves. There was a heavy swell but it was thrilling to be in that powerful sea.
We saw the fur seals, bottle nosed dolphins , bullers albatross and heard the fiordland crested penguins, though we didn't see them.
On the way back we drove 2 km down the tunnel into the Manapouri Power Station which was absolutely awesome. 7 turbines driving the thing and 81 Olympic swimming pools of water gushing through every minute. What an amazing feat of engineering. Incredible that it was actually built, and in such a remote place. It could almost have been the highlight of the day..maybe it was.
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