A sound experience

By CATH GILMOUR

Inky sea, tannin-steeped, is mirror calm beneath the warble of the dawn chorus. Luxuriant foliage envelops the precipitous mountainsides, ridges emerging from the thick mist that softly drapes them. It's a world primeval in its glory.

This is Doubtful Sound. Tolkienesque mystique. Nature unbothered by man or modernity. We are anchored in Precipice Cove, an aptly named, all-weather harbour in Bradshaw Sound, a northern offshoot of Doubtful.

Aboard Fiordland Travel's Fiordland Navigator, we're getting ready to motor into Little Precipice Bay, one of only three flat camping spots for the adventurous hunter or sea-kayaker.

A string between two trees for hitching a fly, a rudimentary table and fire grill compare starkly to the comfort of our accommodation aboard.

But we're interested in the bush. Within metres, we have dispersed to find our own patch. It's dense, it's wet, it's green and glorious.

We soon understand the reason for the incredible intensity of green we saw while kayaking the night before. Fiordland's 200-plus days of rain mean there's not a bare branch anywhere.

Every nook is host to moss or epiphyte. Add this to the thickly textured broadleaf and fern understorey, and Fiordland gives "green" a new level of meaning. The increasingly insistent slap of raindrops on the leaves above hints at how.

Too soon, the low hum of the tender's motor tells us it's time to leave the birds to their tuneful trilling.

The real rainforest weather has descended by the time we have finished chef Jason's superb breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns and grilled tomatoes (enough to make me feel dreadfully sorry for those who have to make do with the Little Precipice Bay campsite).

Now the vista takes on shades of a Dutch Old Master painting. Dark and foreboding ink-black and dark-green are the background for white jags of waterfall and the grey-white slash of rock bared by tree avalanches. Sharp ridges protrude suddenly from dense grey cloud.

But the overall impression is one of softness. Cloud cushions rather than makes the environs more harsh. It belongs here.

Fiordland National Park is acknowledged as one of the world's scenic treasures by its status as a World Heritage park, Te Wahipounamu South-West New Zealand.

Doubtful Sound is its second-longest fiord. At 40.4km, it is three times longer and 10 times larger than its more famous cousin, Milford Sound.

It is also much quieter. The road - the most expensive built in New Zealand, at $2 a centimetre - can be accessed only by boat over island-studded Lake Manapouri. National Park concessions are restricted to ensure it retains its wilderness feel.

So there's an air of privilege as we board the Fiordland Navigator at Deep Cove. Everyone is aware this isn't an everyday trip we are embarking on.

The Fiordland Navigator is a ship worthy of the event. Believed to be the largest passenger vessel built in New Zealand, her design is based on the historic, flat-bottomed trading scows that plied the North Island trade routes.

Forty metres long with a 1.8m draft, she can carry 72 passengers overnight in spacious comfort. Two storeys offer accommodation ranging from four-person bunkrooms to private rooms with great view windows and ensuites.

The top two levels house the saloon and bar, observation room, plentiful deck space and captain's bridge.

The boat was built in Bluff, injecting more than $5 million into the Southland economy during 2000 and last year. It was launched last November as the latest addition to this private tourism company that has been offering trips around Fiordland National Park and Queenstown for more than 50 years.

In the first six weeks, Fiordland Navigator carried 1400 overnight passengers - proof Fiordland Travel has aimed well at its target market of discriminating, independent travellers and specialist tour groups. Many among our group are young travellers.

After our welcome, safety briefing and crew introduction, we're off at a gentle 11 knots, leaving Deep Cove's signs of civilisation in our wake. We're told we are lucky to be heading out on the first dry day after nine days of rain.

During our two-day trip, we explore the fiord in nearly all its weathery manifestations; rain, sun, mist, torrential downpour, cloudy, calm and drizzle. We only miss out on wind.

That's not a bad thing when we hear the tale of crayfishermen having to use helicopters to retrieve buoys hurled into trees by the ferocious gales that sometimes sweep this coast

Meanwhile, we are cruising on glassy waters, eyes peeled for the resident pod of bottlenose dolphins that often come to play alongside the Navigator's hull. Sadly, the dolphins we do see forego their usual bow-wave frolic in favour of feeding quietly.

Doubtful Sound's steep mountainsides are evidence that it is, in fact, a glacier-carved fiord rather than a drowned river valley or sound. Twelve major glacial periods in the past two million years have sculpted their way through Fiordland's hard plutonic rocks, which still bear the glaciers' striations.

These are revealed where rain has made the forest too heavy for its thin root system to support on the sheer rock face. The resultant avalanches scrape the bedrock clean, leaving glacial sculptures framed by lush forest.

We are told it will be at least five years before algae and moss create a substratum nourishing enough to sustain fern and shrub seeds dropped by native birds. Mature forest will return in 70 to 100 years.

The sun struggles out as we near the entrance to Doubtful Sound. Captain James Cook was the first European to see, chart and name this as he circumnavigated New Zealand in 1770.

But anxiety about whether the ship could sail out again prevented his exploration. Cook's fear was justified, as easterly winds are rare here.

Twenty-three years later, Spanish Captain Alessandro Malaspina had a more creative approach. He stopped off Febrero Point - yes, it was February 1793 - and sent hydrographer Felipe Bauza off in a longboat to explore the harbour. Consequently, this remote corner of New Zealand boasts a flurry of Spanish names.

Doubtful Sound has changed little since then. The bloody and ruthless seal industry, which began soon after Malaspina's voyage, nearly wiped out the local fur seals but total protection since 1946 has seen the return of a healthy population.

They can be seen year round at the Nee Islets, near the Doubtful Sound entrance, and are often also sighted basking on rocks elsewhere around the fiord.

We park off the Nees to enjoy our view of the seal colony, with recently born pups playing in rock pools and the bulls preening for their harem. The gentle rolling swell, indicative of a past storm's wind, is for them a splashing plaything.

At an adjacent island, we enjoy the unseasonal treat of two rare Fiordland crested penguins. We are told that most are now at sea to moult, so either these ones are working off the wrong calendar or they can't swim.

It's time to head back inland, again passing one of Fiordland National Park's two marine reserves. Te Awaatu Channel (the Gut) Marine Reserve protects 93ha of sea, hosting the highest diversity of species known in the fiord.

Tea-coloured, freshwater forms a 3-4m layer above the seawater in all but the outer reaches of the fiord, restricting most marine life to the top 40m.

Kelp demarcates the two zones, as it can survive only in the freshwater-free tidal zone.

Soup and buns stave off hunger as we near our night's anchorage. Nearly everyone then dons life jackets for a tour by kayak or tender.

Jason's delicious buffet dinner and a night of superb piano playing, song and laughter (mainly at our lack of lyrics!) follow, punctuated by walks around the deck to enjoy the silent nightlife of the fiord.

This is why we're here. To revel in the power of nature from the comfort and camaraderie of our ship.

The next morning goes too quickly. Waterfalls return with the rain, coursing down tracks that were dry yesterday. This, too, is part of Fiordland's power. Ever-changing but, somehow, always the same.

Case notes

* When to go

Season runs October to April.

* What it costs

The cruise featured costs $395 (adult) and $197.50 (child) twin share, or $275/$137.50 quad share.

One-day cruises, such as the Wilderness Cruise, start from $190 (adult) and $45 (children). Prices are valid from October 1.

Fiordland Travel (Real Journeys from October 1) is offering a $50 discount for selected cruises taken during October.

Contact the company at: ph 0800 656502.

Email info@realjourneys.co.nz

* Getting there

Coach connections are available from Queenstown (2hrs 45min) and Te Anau (30min).

* What to take

Comfortable walking shoes or boots, waterproof jacket, woollen sweater or fleece jacket, sunscreen, sunglasses and insect repellent.

* From October 1, Fiordland Travel will be known as Real Journeys.

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