The Doubtful Sound cruise is the very best Fiordlands National Park excursion. On this day trip, you’ll get a wide variety of experiences, starting with a cruise across Lake Manapouri during the sunrise. Once you cross the beautiful lake, you’ll board a coach bus that takes you on a scenic journey through the heart of Fiordlands National Park. Keep your eyes open looking for Keas and other famous New Zealand birds. Finally, you’ll reach Doubtful Sound, where you’ll board a cruise and enjoy the sights and sounds of New Zealand’s most beautiful waterway. Doubtful Sound is magical, full of waterfalls, wildlife, and stunning reflective waters that show off the huge cliffs that surround the sound. This adventure, which we took with Go Orange, will be the perfect Fiordlands excursion.
Part 1: Lake Manapouri Cruise
This Doubtful Sound cruise excursion starts with a Lake Manapouri cruise. If you take the early trip, you’ll get 2 great benefits. First off, the trip is cheaper than the later option. You’ll save some money! Second, you’ll get to see the sun rise over Lake Manapouri.
Seeing the sun rise and paint the sky a watercolor of reds, yellows, purples, and blues is great. Add in the fact that you are cruising across the smooth water of Lake Manapouri and it becomes a downright wonderful experience!
While on the Lake Manapouri Cruise, you will also learn some incredible facts from your tour guide. Many of these facts are around the Manapouri Power Station, which produces a HUGE amount of power to keep New Zealand’s South Island on the grid. This power station is located right in between Lake Manapouri and Doubtful Sound, and is pretty cool to see up close and personal.
Part 2: Coach Bus Through Fiordlands National Park
Once you reach the opposite shore of Lake Manapouri, there is a bus waiting to bring you on a 30 minute scenic drive through Fiordlands National Park. The road you take goes only between Lake Manapouri and Doubtful Sound, and therefore is impossible to reach except by boat!
Lucky for you, you’ll be the only ones on the road! A Doubtful Sound cruise is basically the only way you’ll be able to drive this scenic route. The road takes you on a winding path across Wilmot Pass, the highest point you’ll reach on this excursion.
While on this route, keep your eyes out for some of New Zealand’s famous bird wildlife, including the Kea, Weka, and maybe even a Kiwi if you are lucky! After you cross Wilmot Pass, also make sure to spot Doubtful Sound from above, an absolutely beautiful site from a bird’s eye view.
Part 3: Doubtful Sound Cruise
After about an hour and a half of cruising Lake Manapouri and touring Fiordlands National Park, you’ll reach the incredible destination of this excursion: Doubtful Sound. At the harbor, you’ll board a ship, which will be your home for the next few hours as you cruise each nook and cranny of New Zealand’s most beautiful body of water.
If you choose Go Orange, as we did, your Doubtful Sound cruise will have a full tea and coffee bar on board. Having a hot drink while standing on the bow of the ship enjoying the brisk Doubtful Sound wind, not to mention that view, is pure bliss.
Your cruise captain will navigate you through the incredibly calm waters of Doubtful Sound. There will likely be only one or two ships on the ENTIRE SOUND, making the water very still and reflective, especially early in the morning.
The Doubtful Sound cruise will take you up close and personal to the huge waterfalls flowing over the enormous cliffs on shore. You’ll see the sun disappear and reappear around the high peaks of Fiordlands National Park.
If you get lucky, you can even spot some of the sea life that lives in Doubtful Sound! On our cruise, we saw a small pod of dolphins swimming by. You can also spot seals and, if you are super lucky, a whale or two!
Doubtful Sound / Patea – A Quiet Place
The best part of the cruise, in our opinion, was a period of 10 minutes when the captain stopped the ship, turned off the engine and asked the crew and passengers for complete silence. During this time, our ears were treated to the sounds of Doubtful Sound, and only those sounds.
The Maori name for Doubtful Sound is Patea, which according to our captain roughly translates to ‘Quiet Place’. When the captain shuts the engine off and all you hear is the natural noises, you’ll see why. Doubtful Sound is EXTREMELY quiet, and is one of the most peaceful places we’ve ever been to.
All in all, the Doubtful Sound cruise was an absolutely wonderful experience. Each leg of the journey, the Lake Manapouri cruise, the tour of Fiordlands National Park, and the Doubtful Sound cruise, made for a unique and wonderful adventure.
If you need more convincing, check out our video on Doubtful Sound!
One question does come up, however. Is Doubtful Sound a better excursion than New Zealand’s most popular destination, Milford Sound? Check out our blog post on Doubtful Sound vs Milford Sound.
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