Doubtful Sound

26-2-2014

     After our short kayaking stint in Milford Sound, doing a longer kayaking trip seemed like a great idea, and a Doubtful Sound was the perfect place to do it. 

     Doubtful Sound is incorrectly named a sound since it's actually a fjord, like every "sound" in Fjordland National Park. It's inaccessible accept by guide. We had to cross Lake Manapouri, which is pretty big in and of itself, by boat. It took us an about an hour. Then we went by bus along a gravel road that wound through a valley, crossed into another valley, then over to the innermost reaches of Doubtful Sound. There we hopped onto another boat and went a little further before we stopped and loaded ourselves into kayaks from the boat. We had changed into wetsuits before getting on the bus, so we were ready to go.

     We paddled leisurely up the fjord while the guide talked about our surroundings. The top layer of the water in the fjord was actually fresh water because of all the rain. It gets to be about 25 feet deep, but currently the fresh water level was only 15 ft deep. 

     There's a rare and extremely endangered bird that lives there, called the Kakapo bird. Other than invasive predators, one of the reasons it's so rare is because it only mates when a certain kind of tree is blooming, which normally happens every 7 years or so. It's been 14 since the Rimu Tree last bloomed. But the female Kakapos refuse to mate without it, because their young survive only on the Rimu.

      When the Rimu Tree does bloom there is a lot of pollen. It's all over. So much so that the water actually turns yellow because of it, and later in the season there will be brightly colored algae blooms all over. I guess it's pretty spectacular to see. 

       We didn't wee any Kakapo birds, but we did see a Blue Penguin. It's the most common penguin of New Zealand, but it was still neat. I haven't been able to sight a Crested Penguin, or any of the really cool looking endemic and endangered ones, but at least I've officially seen a penguin in the wild. It looked a bit like a duck, just floating around. 

     By the end of the day we had paddled 14 kilometers. It only felt like 5. We did break for lunch, boarding the boat again and eating our packed lunches. We all made use of the toilet in the cabin and then we got right back into our kayaks. 

     I don't know how long we were actually kayaking, but we started our day at 7:15 and ended up heading back across Lake Manapouri at 4:30. It was a nice, full day of kayaking, and it felt good. 

     On the boat ride back our boat took a detour. It veered off into one of the smaller wings of the lake, zipping all the way down to the end, and then the captain beached us. One of the cool things about all these glacial lakes is that the banks are really steep in most spots. So steep that you can drive a boat right into shore, beach the bow onto the sand, and still have the motor running smoothly in the water at the stern. 

      Me and Luke hopped off without even having to get wet. The captain and our guide passed us a kayak, then waved goodbye as they and the rest of the tourists drove away. 

      We had a whole beach to ourselves. We had the whole bay to ourselves. There was no-one around, no sign of human life visible in any direction. Behind us in the next bay over, somewhere in the distance, was the town of Manapouri, I knew. But from where we were, it was a quiet, picturesque paradise. 

     The first thing we did was find a flat spot back in the bush to put up our tent, followed by putting up our tent. We were quick about it, and we quickly threw all our stuff inside, unzipping the least amount of doorway as possible so that the sandflies couldn't get it. They were bad. We covered ourselves with long sleeves, long pants, socks, and everything else, and protected any remaining exposed skin with Deet. Those buggers still swarmed around us, they just didn't bite. We walked along the beach as far as it would go in both directions, which included some bouldering on one end. It was really neat. 

    After that we cooked dinner; a luxurious butter chicken sauce with chicken over rice. We cleaned up and pondered our options, including kayaking some more, but the sandflies got the best of us and we retreated to the tent. We had a killer view from our tent, so were happy to sit in there and watch the waves roll in. And we watched the sunset. Meanwhile, the screen slowly turned black as more and more sandflies surrounded the tent. There was even a constant thwapping against the tent as they repeatedly flew into the rainfly.

      I didn't care much, though. So long as I didn't have to pee I didn't care that the bugs were bad. I was perfectly happy to stay in the tent and snuggle. It was a beautiful night. The stars were out but it never did get that cold. 

     The next morning we took our time getting up. The bugs were still pretty bad so we were in no hurry to leave the tent, but eventually we had to. I sprinted to the water and washed off, quickly toweling off and dressing before the bugs got me. I managed to get away with only 3 bites. We made breakfast, eggs with potatoes and onions, then cleaned up and broke camp. We packed everything into the double-seater kayak then left. We tried to radio to the kayak company but for some reason it wasn't working very well. We could hear everything just fine but they couldn't hear us. We managed to find out that because of lake conditions we should stick to the bays and use the portage between bays rather than paddle around. It was windy, and getting windier. I could see whitecaps outside the bay, so we steered clear and headed for the portage. 

      Finding the trail for portage was a little tricky, and we ended up mucking through a very shallow, very silty shoreline, dragging the kayak for about 50 meters through it all. Then we had to get across to the other side still, about another 100 meters. The kayak was way too heavy with all our stuff in it (plus the gear the company gave us, which just about doubled our load) to carry, so we dragged it through the portage too. Luke is brilliant, so he set up a system to pull the kayak and it didn't take hardly any effort at all. 

      Once as reached the beach on the other side, he tried radioing again. It still didn't work, so he pulled out his phone and called instead. Finally we could communicate, so the company knew when to expect us back for pick-up. They told us it would only take about an hour to cross the next bay and get to the boat launch in the river channel. 

     I have no idea how long it actually took, but I'm guessing a little more than an hour. The water was really choppy, with waves ranging from 3-5 feet, going in exactly the wrong direction for us to safely get to the channel, yet alone in it. 

     I'll admit, I was slightly terrified. I've tried kayak surfing enough times to know it's a lot harder than it looks. When you're surfing a wave, the minute your kayak starts to turn (as it naturally does), you get completely sideways and then flipped within seconds. It's hard work to stay on track with the wave, and even if you manage to do so successfully, you'll end up on shore. We didn't want to end up on shore, but to go with or against the waves was completely the wrong direction. Our direct path was parallel with the waves. 

     To add to the challenge, we had a narrow sea kayak loaded down with gear, so when we were going with the waves the nose sank under water. Not good. 

     Waves crashed over us. Water lapped over the middle, front, and back. We got soaked. We had spray skirts on, of course, but they didn't help much. Sitting water just leaked right through them.

    It was stressful, thinking we might flip with every wave. I'm used to kayaking alone, not with a partner, so that whole element just  added unpredictability into what I was familiar with, which just made me even more nervous. Thankfully Luke is very adept and skilled, just as much as I am, and we managed to not flip. Not only that, but he steered us perfectly on the only route that work to get us safely into the channel. 

    Once we made it into the channel we were home free. No boats were out and about, it was too choppy, so we didn't have any traffic to worry about. I was afraid if I stopped paddling my arms would stop working, but the channel was nice and flat and the paddling was easier. 

     Between the bugs, the wind, and the chop, it's no wonder why most people don't do what we did. It did seem half crazy. But it was also incredibly fun. There aren't a lot of places in the world where you can look around and not see a single sign of humans anywhere, yet alone in such a beautiful place. There's a running joke in New Zealand that if there weren't sandflies, all these beautiful places would be too crowded. I have no doubt that's true. So in a way, I'm thankful. And I'll gladly tough out the little things for opportunities like this. 

-Carolyn