Without A Doubt
During our time in Te Anau, we had planned to spend one of the days seeing Milford Sound, but since we had already done that, we opted instead to see the less visited Doubtful Sound. Again, the name is misinformed, it is actually a fiord, but oh well. It was, unsurprisingly, slated to rain all day, but we persevered. Doubtful Sound is actually hard to get to and people often take flights there, but with the weather that wasn't an option. Instead we took a tour with Real Journeys that brought us first across Lake Manapouri, then bused us down the most expensive road in New Zealand (originally built through the mountain as a service road), then we got onto a tour boat for a few hours around the sound, then back up the curvy road on a bus, then back across Lake Manapouri. It was a long day... It rained for most of it, with some spots of sunshine during which we'd run outside to snap as many photos as possible before it started to rain again. It was a really beautiful landscape, despite the gloom, and much larger than Milford Sound. In fact, Milford Sound could fit into a single arm of Doubtful Sound. It was much more remote and rugged, and because it rained so much it was teeming with green all up and down the steep faces of the mountains around us. There were also hundreds of rain-induced waterfalls streaming down the mountains. It's a beautiful place if you have the time to see it and don't mind a rainy day.
