Deep Cove and Doubtful Sound

So we woke up for breakfast on Sunday, March 10, packed our stuff, and headed off in the coach. We had about a two-hour drive to Lake Manapouri where we hopped on a ferry with all of our stuff packed in route to Deep Cove. Mountains and fiords were visible from all directions as we rode across the freshwater lake. After about 45 minutes, we made it to the side where there was a power station that was notable for being built inside of a fiord. We had a little tour through the power station and got on our way to the Deep Cove Hostel, which would be our accommodation for the next 3 nights. After about a 45-minute coach ride through the mountains and fiords, we made it. “Simple” would be a great way of describing the accommodation. It was a quaint little place just above the water and really out in the middle of nowhere. It can only be reached by ferry across Lake Manapouri, so it was really remote. It was dorm-style and there were about 10 bedrooms, basically just enough for all of us, with a kitchen and common area. The place is special because it is so protected by the New Zealand government. Deep Cove flows out to Doubtful Sound and only 300 people are permitted to visit per day, and only 38 people can stay overnight because that is how many the hostel, the only accommodation across the lake, can sleep. The area definitely has the feel of a place that is untouched by people. (My one knock on the place is that the sandflies were miserable. If you’ve never been bit by one, imagine a mosquito bite and a booster shot at the same time and that’s about what one feels like). But anyway, after getting settled for a little bit, we had a 3-hour geography class with a UGA professor who had flown all the way to New Zealand for class. It wasn’t too bad, but not having class very often makes it all the more miserable when we actually do have class. After talking about maps for 3 hours, we had dinner. Later on, we had an introductory lesson about Fiordlands National Park (made up my Doubtful Sound and 11 others) and I tried to get a little work done before going to bed.

The next morning we had to wake up relatively early to be ready for our cruise through Deep Cove and Doubtful Sound. The cruise was absolutely amazing. We were surrounded by sheer beauty for 3 hours in one of the most pristine parts of the fiordlands. Though there was a large inside part of the boat, it was almost impossible to not stand outside the entire time looking at the mesmerizing scenery. We saw our fair share of New Zealand wildlife, as well. As we cruising out to the where the Sound runs into the sea, we saw a couple blue penguins and giant albatross that flew behind our boat for about 10 minutes. We made it to the seal colony, which was a planned part of the trip, but unplanned was a pod of dolphins as we made our way back in. It was the first time I had ever seen wild dolphins that close up before and a highlight was watching one jump vertically and do a flip about 6 whole feet out of the water and as we rode away, they would swim through the wake of the boat and do flips and barrel rolls…definitely one of the coolest things I have ever seen. When we got back around 1, we had lunch before going on a hike through the forest part of the fiordlands. The whole hike took about 3 hours and we saw some waterfalls, looked at some vegetation, and learned more about the ecology of the park. Afterwards, we hung out a little before dinner and then of course did some work.

The next morning (Tuesday), we had class first thing in the morning, but I guess it was kind of nice to get it over with. However, we were assigned a 5-page paper afterwards that did nothing but add to the large amount of stress that most of us were already feeling from schoolwork, so that was great. By the time class was over, it was about lunchtime, so we ate before going out on another hike. The hike was the most uphill hike I have ever done, which kind of makes sense if you see the fiords. They’re nearly vertical all the way up if you’re looking from the bottom. So basically, we used all form limbs to climb rocks and roots to make it to a vista that overlooked much of Deep Cove. I suppose it was tough, but it was really only 45 minutes to the top, so it wasn’t too bad, nothing like our hike in Queenstown at least. Up at the top, we listened to some stories about the Maori from our guide. I’m not going to lie though, I was so tired from staying up all the past nights that I passed out laying against the rock as I spoke, but at least it was a pretty nice catnap. We made back to the hostel a little before dinnertime and we hung around a little bit before having dinner. After dinner, we had another discussion and of course, I stayed up doing schoolwork late again. We had a debate in a couple days where we worked in teams to determine whether the visitor quota for Doubtful Sound should be raised and we had to plan out our argument. After our group meeting, I somehow stayed productive for a while and got some things done, but the consequence was another late night.

The next day was departure day and we got up around 6:30 for breakfast so that we could pack and do all the necessary cleaning of the hostel. We got our coach ride around mid-morning, which to took us to our ferry ride, which took us back to our coach that took us back to Queenstown.  On the way, we stopped at Te Anau Wildlife Park and got to look at some endangered birds that are indigenous to New Zealand, all of which are pretty neat. New Zealand has cool birds because mammals are not indigenous to the islands (other than the seal) and therefore, birds were dominant and could really evolve. Now, introduced species compete with the birds for food (or eat them) and its caused problems for them. We made it to Queenstown and the same accommodation we were in before around mid-afternoon and decided to grab an early dinner before class at 6. Again, it definitely wasn’t the way I’d choose to spend 3 hours, but I suppose it wasn’t too bad. And as always, I stayed up late trying to get some work done.

Overall Deep Cove/Doubtful Sound was an amazing experience. It was really cool to see a beautiful landscape that was so pristine and unaltered by humans. It was eye-opening to think about how over-development could ruin a place a like Doubtful Sound.