Doubtful Sound

I think it was named this by Sir James Cook because it was doubtful that our car would ever make it home. We rented about a 1988 grey Ford station wagon. It is a beautiful piece of engineering but for me and compared to the Strait i think i will stay away. This place was about a 3 hour drive on the left side of the road from Queenstown. We made it alright only scaring the passengers occasionally above the lake without cliff blockers on the road. We did get to listen to the best of the 60's tape about 100 times. This was a cassette (no radio in the mountains kids) and there was a cheesy band covering and mixing all types of songs together from 'Stay' to 'Mr Tambourine Man', simply amazing. We stayed in some cabin that we got hot as acceptable without boiling with all the wood available. The brothers there to welcome us seemed a little odd but i don't think that they had seen anyone in a few weeks. They also told us that they hadn't seen the sun till the day before in about 3 weeks. Good times in Doubtful Sound.

The next day we were off on an all day adventure that would take us across a lake down into an Italian designed power plant and out into the Tasman Sea through the sound (technically a fjord). Yeah we got up early and made it down there in time to meet the quirky and uninformative crew and be really cold. The lake part was alright and we saw Mt Doom again although i thought i had seen it on the north island. Hmm, i think that they claim that everywhere. Maybe it wasn't even filmed here?

Lots of LOTR looking stuff, again, and then down into the power plant. This plant with 7 generators or whatever could power Auckland they say. Amazing. I've been in Hoover Dam and that is quite a facility. Anyway it was warmer down there so i was happy. On to the Sound down a frozen road and onto our awaiting chariot. We cruised for quite awhile and it was amazing to see cliffs drop straight into the water and we pull up next to the edge and it's still 300m below us to the bottom. It started raining since it does about 200-250 days out of the year here and great waterfalls came off the cliffs. We saw no dolphins or penguins but saw more seals which was pretty bad ass. One even swam next to us at about 3 knots without even making an effort. Pretty sweet animals. The day was long but i had a pbj for lunch and afternoon tea with orange chocolate chip cookies to keep me going. Thank goodness for tea time and English influence.

After a hella long ride back to the docks and back over the lake we had a long ride in the sweet ass car back to Queenstown. More 60's and i think i had the complete tape memorized. I love driving by now because it says you are going 100 and its really in kilometers but you just don't think about it because your wheels might fall off. Made it home after a stop for some ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) cookies and a Moro bar. No dying on the roads out of fear of ice, don't worry.