Doubtful Sound to Queenstown

Friday 11th November
The schooner unfurled her sails this morning, it was a beautiful spectacle. I tried to photograph it but it’s very difficult to do from on the boat to get all the sails in, it needed really to be photographed from a distance. It was chilly first thing but we didn’t want to waste a moment of our time on the boat, so after a speedy breakfast we took a hot cuppa onto the top deck to watch our progress along the Sound. The water was like a millpond and the boat gently cut through the water. The mountains were mirrored perfectly in the water. We were very fortunate and saw penguins and dolphins. The penguins were preening themselves and hopping from rock to rock by the water’s edge under the trees on an island. We spotted the dolphins approaching from a way off. The boat was stopped and all the engines were turned off. Everyone stood on the decks, listening to the Sound of Silence. All we could hear was the birdsong from the trees on the surrounding mountains, the dolphins calling to each other and the gentle splashing as they swam past, flipping and jumping in joyous delight at just being alive. It was a magical moment, just us there with nature in the silence. Wonderful, certainly one of my highlights of our holiday.

The only drawback to this area is the sand flies. They look very much like the thunder flies we have at home, but they bite and boy do the bites itch!! Despite anti-bug spray I have 7 bites on my right foot and 9 on my left foot! The itching is driving me crazy and every now and then I give into the urge to scratch the relief is wonderful, but then immediately I regret giving in as the itching returns ten times worse. I have now slavered my feet in sting relief and pray it kicks in soon.

Arriving back at the quayside we had our outward journey in reverse so we boarded a coach to take us to the ferry and then another coach to bring us back to Queenstown and to Peppers Beacon Hotel. We didn’t arrive back until 4pm and were very tired by then. This time we were in a room right at the top and had amazing views over the lake and mountains. Our luggage was supposed to have been taken to our room but when we got in we had someone else’s luggage, a call to reception sorted it out, the receptionist had taken our luggage to the wrong room and we had their luggage. Sorted out in no time. Time to do all our washing and eat. We all wanted just to get something and cook it in our rooms again and not bother going out, so that’s what we did.Read more