NZ - Day 17

We were up early this morning for breakfast as we had a journey to take. Today was the day we were going to cruise Doubtful Sound. First an half hour car journey and then a wait to meet our fellow travellers, 9 of them who were all from the Czech Republic. Only their guide who now lives in New Zealand spoke English. We had one hour on a cruise boat across the Manapouri lake, then 45 minutes drive across the Wilmot pass by one of the crew who came to meet us and then we boarded our vessel for the next 22 hours and met the other two members of the crew. First, we had a safety briefing and then shown our “rooms”.we had one of the 2 encuite rooms but it was tight. There was a bunk bed over one side of the bed next to the window so I volunteered to sleep that side. We set off across another lake and into the Sound and soon saw the Queen Mary 2 as you do. It was just poking it’s nose into the Sound. The fishing lines were brought out and about 10 Blue Cod caught, the smaller ones returned to the Sea. The 2 crew went diving for lobsters or crayfish as they call them here and came back with a good catch. Six of us went out on single kayaks when we moored up late afternoon, the first time I had kayaked on my own but found it relatively easy on a light boat. Lunch and our five course staggered evening meal were all fish based and featured the blue cod and crayfish all fresh and delicious. The views were amazing and we saw lots of seabirds including this albatross in extras which my husband saw swallow one of the blue cod whole. The Czechs were still merry as we settled into our little bed that night and the sunset views were truly stunning.