After our hike on the Milford Track, we drove back down to Te Anau to spend the night.

Next morning, Wednesday, October 30, we hopped back into the car and headed for Pearl Harbor at the settlement of Manapouri to catch the ferry across the lake. That’s our boat, furthest to the right.

We’re off to visit Doubtful Sound, the second largest fjord in Fiordland National Park.

The ride across Lake Manapouri took about 45 minutes and was rather uneventful.

Our boat was captained by a young woman who controlled the vessel by joystick, just like you would use in an old-fashioned video game.

After docking at the western end of the West Arm of Lake Manapouri, we climbed aboard a bus that took us up and over Wilmot Pass (elev. 2,200 feet) to Deep Cove where we boarded a second boat for a tour around Doubtful Sound.

Our cheerful bus driver – we’ll call her Sunni – welcomed us aboard, saying she was the tiniest bus driver in New Zealand. I loved her commentary as she carried us over the pass.

She told us about the vegetation, pointing out the 650-year old beech tree shown below, one of the oldest beech trees in New Zealand.

She pointed out that the silver beech is an evergreen, not a deciduous tree. She explained that “decidurous” trees (repeating the word over and over, finally saying in exasperation, “I can’t say that word, decidurous”) do not “shit their leaves.” We knew what she meant.

She also told us that parts of the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed here because the director of the movie like to come here to “imaginate.”

My favorite story was the one she told about people hunting by jumping out of helicopters “onto deers, then roll down hill. Very risk.”

We stopped at an overlook to take in the waterfall across the sound and she pointed out the stout trap, shown above (stouts are like weasels or ferrets), then called for everyone to get back on the bus.

“Everybody here?” she said, laughing. “Of course nobody here say everybody here. Get it? Ha, ha, ha.”

She was great. I told her she made the whole Doubtful Sound excursion worth the price.

Doubtful Sound, itself, was almost a let down in comparison, dreary at embarkation.

But the weather cleared as we stopped briefly to motor past the only structure we saw in the sound, a fisherman’s cabin.

After about an hour, we reached the Tasman Sea.

Here’s the view back into the sound:

Our destination was Nee Island to see the seal colony there. Here’s a marketing idea: See Nee!

I climbed up to the top deck where I was completely alone. As we neared the island, I went down to the floor below where Dale and about a quarter of the other passengers were observing our approach, ogling the fur seals on Nee Island.

I find the human animal also fascinating to observe, like the two seated specimens, glued to their phones, scrolling through social media, completely uninterested in the wildlife outside.

Back up on the top deck, I was able to get a good view of the seals, scattered about doing their seal thing, that is, sleeping until hungry.

After 15 minutes of watching the seals, we began our return into Doubtful Sound.

This fjord was originally named Doubtful Harbor by Capt. James Cook when he sailed by in 1770, so-called because he doubted its suitability as an anchorage. He passed it by.

There were as many waterfalls in Doubtful Sound as there were in Milford Sound. This was one of the prettiest:

Voyage over, it’s back to Te Anau for dinner and a good night’s sleep. We’ve got a drive ahead us tomorrow. We’re heading north to see Mount Cook.