Down to Doubtful Sound in New Zealand
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2008
1
152
188
Trip End
Jun 28, 2009
Te Anau,
South Island,
New Zealand
Sunday, March 8, 2009
This morning we had to get up before sunrise to catch a taxi to a bus to another bus to a ferry to a combi (a van) to our boat on the Doubtful Sound
My first big fish!!!
. It took all morning, and it rained in between the short times it was sunny. On the ferry we saw a huge perfect rainbow right over the mountains - I could see both ends and wondered what was there.When we got off the ferry, Chris from Deep Cove Charters met us. He is the captain and Owner of the Sea Finn, our home for the next three days. We motored out of the Sound and watched hundreds of huge, roaring waterfalls fall to the earth. This is where they filmed the movie Lord of the Rings and it is a very wild place. The only way to get to where we are going is by boat or helicopter - there are no roads or even trails. Chris told us that there are 100 earthquakes a day here because the earth is still changing. The last big one was in 2003 and you can see where some of the sides of the mountains fell off. It was 7.3 on the Richter scale and they expect the next big one to be over 8.
After we motored through the Sound, we decided to go 40 minutes up the Tasman Sea to Charles Sound to fish and spend the night. Captain Cook sailed the Endeavour (the boat that we saw in Sydney) right by here, but he thought that he would not be able to sail out of it so he named it the Doubtful Harbor and sailed on. The ride on the open seas was very rocky - it is stormy and the wake was huge! I even got a little seasick. We looked for whales (it is the season for them) and did see some fur seals and albatross hunting for food. Finally, we turned out of the sea and into the sound and it was calm again. We surfed a wave right into the sound and then looked for a place to fish. Chris baited three rods and reels and we stopped right under a waterfall. Almost immediately Dad caught a fish and then I caught one! It was lots of fun
Dad and me looking over sound
. We caught a lot of smaller ones (they looked big to me but Chris said they were small), then Mom and Tallulah caught a huge blue cod. Then I caught the biggest fish of the day, another blue cod! I almost caught a shark, too. I was pulling in a small fish, I thought, then it got heavier and heavier. Chris came over to help me and as I was pulling it up, he saw a shark let go of my small fish and swim away! You could see the shark's teeth marks in my fish! They have great white sharks here so I wonder if I had a small one - it would be awesome to catch a shark! We will try again tomorrow.Tonight Chris cooked the fish we caught for dinner, plus some venison (deer meat). He shot the deer two weeks ago right here in the sound. Deer are considered feral animals and they are trying to get them out of the park so anyone can shoot them. My Pop would love this place - he loves hunting and fishing.
This is not what I expected, but it is really fun so far. Tomorrow we are going out on a smaller boat to explore some of the small channels off the sound. Maybe we will see a shark or dolphins!
