Well. There we were. Bathed in deep primordial silence, a place that has changed very little since the last ice age. Taking a moment to pause, deep within one of Doubtful’s many arms – engine stopped – all sound quenched. The absolute and deafening silence filling our ears – pressing in from the towering mountains surrounding us. Mountains with their genesis far below the still surface of the water, before transitioning to rise almost vertically, finally terminating hundreds of metres above.
It is a question that is oft asked. Which sound is better – Milford or Doubtful?
If you’re short on time and you don’t mind navigating the plethora of tourist buses, campervans and the multiplicity of other vehicles that crowd their way into Milford Sound daily; only then to embark their contents onto one of the myriad of waiting boats, then yes, by all means do. Don’t get me wrong, Milford Sound is beautiful rain or shine and well worth the visit. But, when Milford is busy, it is a sausage factory, designed to do one thing – process as many people though the machine as fast as they can, in a relatively short window of time.
On the other hand, if you have a little more time, and consider the journey to get there as part of the adventure, with the bonus reward of a mere fraction of the people; then Doubtful Sound is the one to choose. You can’t drive to Doubtful Sound. First you need to cross Lake Manapouri by boat, and then take a bus up and over the Wilmot Pass Road, (unconnected to the national road network) to finally reach Doubtful Sound.
We chose to do the overnight cruise, of which there are a couple of options. There is the Real NZ overnight cruise offered on larger boats, up to 52 passengers, or there is the smaller, more boutique Southern Secret cruise which has a maximum of 12 passengers.
We chose the smaller Southern Secret cruise, booking the – well if you’re gonna do it, then you may as well do it properly – master suite cabin in the bow. The boat was not full, with this trip only having nine passengers onboard.
The crew of the MV Southern Secret is small – just two. The skipper – who well, did what skippers do, and the skipper’s wife, who singlehandedly produced a continuous spread of food from the time we arrived to the time we left. The food was delicious and simply outstanding. This of course was helped in no small part by the fresh fish and crayfish caught only a short time earlier by the guests and their fishing lines. There is nothing quite like eating fish so fresh that it was literally swimming in the waters below the boat only a small handful of time earlier.
Moored deep in an arm of the sound, surrounded completely by Jurassic mountains, once the generator was switched off, the night was calm, quiet and peaceful. The next morning the boat made its way back to Deep Cove at the head of the sound, where we boarded the waiting bus to take us back over the pass and across the lake, returning to Manapouri and Te Anau.
So, if you have the time I recommend doing both sounds, however, if you must choose – the choice is Doubtful – and that is, quite assuredly, beyond all reasonable doubt.
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