You might be thinking the title refers to my mental or emotional state but in reality it references the fact that today we took a boat trip to Doubtful Sound which, in spite of its name is not a sound but rather a fjord. More on that later but I couldn’t leave you wondering about the title a minute longer.
The reason you haven’t seen a blog entry for a few days is because of the amazing 20+ hour trip we took on “The Wanderer”. The trip was magical with incredible beauty where we were totally cut off from the electronic world (no bars, no WiFi which, honestly, felt good and VERY strange).
What made the boat trip really work is that we were away from civilization. To give you an idea of how removed we were from people, here is how we got to Doubtful Sound:
First we drove through small towns to even smaller towns and then finally to the drop off point. Then we got on a boat for an hour through beautiful scenery until we got to the hydroelectric dam. Then we hopped on a bus which drove us over roads that I would never, in a million years, try to drive in the small rental car we had much less in a full sized bus (our guide informed us that this was the most expensive road ever built in New Zealand because of having to cut it through the wilderness). That was about 45 minutes and THEN we finally arrived at the boat. So close to two hours worth of traveling after we left our car to get to our home for 20ish hours.
I know I can’t do the boat trip justice as my writing style is “storytelling” and our trip was more like poetry. So I’ve asked someone to be a guest blogger to better do our boat trip justice.
This is Robin. David asked me to guest blog about our boat trip. There is almost nothing more peaceful to me than being on a boat on the water. And we got a double dose of pleasure as we took a boat across spectacular Lake Manapouri to get to the bus to get to the boat to ride through the even more spectacular fjord. It is not often that I feel that I am in an untamed, wild place. And while we were not the only boat in the fjord, the vastness and the mountains and the complete vegetative coverage without any built edifices was profound. We saw dolphins playing in the water and a pod of still nursing baby dolphins swimming by. I got out on a kayak and saw stingrays and a huge orange starfish in the water. David took a guided boat trip. We had a moment when all the boat’s engines and generators were turned off and the only sounds to be heard were the call of the birds on a nearby Island. There was no cell service. We stayed outside and had the wind in our faces almost the whole time. It was meditative. And, as we’ve travelled around New Zealand, we have often heard how dry this summer has been (we’ve had amazingly beautiful days) which is one reason that the water in the fjord was so clear (no run-off from tannins) which in turn allowed us to see the wildlife below the surface. To us, it looks incredibly lush -the forests are filled with mosses and ferns and even a few mushrooms. The air has moisture in it. And, as we drive through the country there are signs saying that fires are not allowed at all because the danger is high. Much care is taken here to preserve the natural beauty of the islands. We have been very lucky to have experienced it.
I’m back.
I have little to add to what Robin said. We really spent almost all of our time on the boat standing outside on the deck looking around. It was stunningly beautiful. I also feel we were lucky (OK, I don’t really believe in luck so it was, yet another, Buddhic Plane moment) to be on the specific boat we were on. It is the smallest of the boats this service runs for overnight tours and had a lovely homey feel about it. You get a chance to really know many of your fellow travelers and that made parts of the trip that much more enjoyable. Our nature guide, Alex, had a lovely relaxed (and knowledgeable) way of sharing information that made his announcements over the loudspeaker something that we enjoyed and looked forward to rather than something that interrupted the beauty around us. It was very hard to leave the boat and the 20+ hours went by way too fast.
After the boat trip we went back to Te Anau and the Lodge to pick up luggage they stored for us (very nice of them), to have lunch (I had my first “meat pie”, a cheeseburger pie which was very good loaded with mushrooms, grilled onion and more. Let me put it to you this way: it was so good I didn’t add any ketchup!) and then drove to Wanaka. Our accommodations there were another lodge and it was also wonderful. It was a private home that the owners expanded to make into a lodge. It had a swimming pool and hot tub which we both really enjoyed. We went into town for dinner and it was amazing. It was a small plate shared meal type of place. Our appetizers were a “crunchy eggplant” dish and a tomato salad which were both incredible. Dinner was sole food (I couldn’t resist the pun) which was also great and a wonderful chocolate mousse. As I mentioned earlier, we are having great eating experiences here. Another note is that I’m being more adventurous in my eating which feels good. Robin is hoping this will continue when we get home and I think there is a good chance it will.
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