Nov 11 & 12 Kayaking Doubtful Sound--The Agony and the Ecstasy

Some people are known to carry around a rain cloud with them wherever they go, I have been blessed to have patch of clear skies follow me around (at least to date) here in the southland of New Zealand, which is quite unheard of.  Our kayaking guide said that there is one trip she does a year where it doesn’t rain at all, and our trip was the one…yay!  I am thrilled for the weather, in fact I came back today with a little bit of sun on my face. Now that I have given space to the obligatory (and thrilling) weather talk, how about a little update on the kayaking trip?

They say that in order to know the good, you have to know the bad. And boy howdy, there were a couple of un-fun moments, but WOWOWOWOWOWOW did the trip’s amazing-ness totally outweigh any negative.  Our trip, which I booked through Go Orange, consisted of 8 customers and 2 guides.  Usually there is only one guide on a trip, but our seasoned guide, Mop (her real name is Amelia but she and her twin sister have been known as moppet and poppet since they were little by their dad and granddad, and for Mop, her nickname stuck.  She is a very mature and seasoned kayaker (turning 22 next week) and we also had Blake—newbie in training along for the ride as well (a very keen and happy to be starting a new job in the amazing Fiordland kayaker from Auckland). Next up on our roster was young newlyweds Sarah and Gund from Belgium, social worker and psychologist respectively, and very nice and peaceful people.  Followed by the second newlywed couple, but a bit more seasoned in life dive instructors Anna (from Seattle) and Rob (from England) who currently live in Indonesia and are open-and-happy-about-it-pot-heads.  Next comes kiwi, Paul from Dunedin a retired teacher in town for some business and extremely nice, kind and funny. Rounding out our motley crew were Stan and Lisette from the Netherlands, a couple who recently broke up (he happy about it and she in frequent tears) who even though they are no longer a couple both decided to keep their airline tickets and sometimes run into each other on their NZ adventures.  You might imagine how enjoyable that dynamic was. Lisette was my paddling and tent partner whereas Stay and Paul paired up.  Stan happily took pictures of us and the entire group throughout the trip, and every time he pointed his camera towards us, Lisette turned her head away and scowled…soooooo fun…..

We started out with the van picking us all up in a few central locations, they even picked me up directly at my B&B 6:15am where I left my car for the duration of the trip.  We then made our way to Manapouri where we boarded a boat to cross Lake Manapouri which took about an hour.

boat launch on lake Manapouri

 Crossing lake Manapouri

We then boarded a bus which took us for a 30 minute ride up and over the pass at the top of which we stopped for an amazing view of the beginning of Doubtful sound where we would shortly be launching.

 First view of Doubtful sound

Once we got to the launch site it was time to gear up.

First off, let me just say that most of the agony was due to both my misunderstanding of the printed instructions as well as being completely compliant to them too.  Go Orange had put out a list of things to bring (which I thought extensive) but I didn’t want to be underprepared, so in went all KINDS of gear for this overnight kayaking trip.  They had written that you could either wear a swimsuit or thermals under your wetsuit…well, I chose thermals, because really, who wants to wear an uncomfortable swimsuit all day long when you can instead be toasty and warm in thermals?  I thought it a bit strange but there it was in black and white.  Well…I knew I was in trouble as I watched Mop hand out the last of the XL wetsuits to the last man (even though he was clearly not an EX body) and handed me an L.  While everyone else had read the instructions differently than me and happily went off to put their wetsuits on over their swimsuits, I was stuck trying to stuff my wool thermal-clad legs into a too-small wetsuit breaking fingernails in the process as I tried with all my might to yank it up and over my thighs and hips.  I had to have someone help me lift it up to my shoulders where I Velcroed it together.  At this point, I had worked up quite a sweat…given that I was in thermals and all…and they had also given us another fleece and rain coat to wear too.  Now that I was walking like the penguins we hoped to soon see, and feeling my shoulders (critical btw, to kayaking) now crimped and cramped by my too-short wetsuit, it was time to stuff ALL my gear into the two dry sacks which they provided.  As I went through my Santa-sized sack of stuff, I couldn’t fit it all in, and ended up leaving about half of it in the bin in the secure shed.  At this point I was so distressed and sweating bullets and everyone was already down at the launch ramp waiting for me to get my self down there, that I was all in a dither…which frankly…I don’t often dither, but this was definitely a dithering moment.  It was clear that I was THAT person of the trip, the dilly-dallier, the shilly-shallier who brought too much gear, too much food, and too much hassle, the one who would have to be looked after and ‘tended to’.  I felt so bad and embarrassed and wanted to shout to everyone, “This isn’t really who I am!  I am the one who is a pro at packing and traveling light.  I know how to camp with the barest of basics.  I know how to rough it, I know how to eat dried fruit and granola for days and to be happy about it.” No…these people only knew that I was the problem child…well…I set out to change their minds, with my surly-fellow-redheadded-recently-dumped-and-still-bitter paddling companion…at that moment it didn’t take a great mind reader to tell that everyone was thinking ‘So glad the two problem children are together and that I don’t have to paddle with them’. After all, it is exactly what I would have been thinking if I were them! Even though the wetsuit continued to provide a lasting agony to my body throughout the day, the ecstacy was just beginning!

First we paddled out past a number of beautiful waterfalls coming down the fjord walls.  We passed a small little island where we were lucky to find and watch a pair of Fiordland Crested penguins…the third rarest penguin in the world.  They were so cute to watch as they made their way along their path at the base of the island in the undergrowth.  Just a note about penguins…if you want to see them go to Antarctica, they were much easier to spot and it wasn’t difficult to shoot them, as they liked to come out in the daylight, whereas the two varieties which I have seen so far have been tough to get good lighting for.

Fiorland Crested Penguins--a  mating pair

After the penguin sighting, we continued down the largest of the 3 main arms of Doubtful Sound.  We stopped for a little shore lunch and then paddled to the end of the arm.

 Doubful sound

 Lunch break


 We doubled back a small bit and then made our way to our overnight camp, carrying our kayaks to their resting place up the shore.  With the kayaks fully loaded with our gear, it takes 6 people (struggling) to lift and carry them—this would also fall under the Agony portion of the trip. The camp was really nice though, it is a semi-permanent campsite; they have a netted gathering area with a raised wood floor where the cook stove and some chairs are.  This is where we ate and hung out for the rest of the evening after we set up our tents and changed out of our wetsuits and sprayed ourselves with bug spray…the sandflies were awful (another Agony element). But we had a lovely time cooking and chatting around the stove and mostly protected by the netted nest before heading off to bed.  They had provided tents, sleep pads and sleeping bags, and for the most part, it was pretty comfy.  I didn’t sleep all that well, as I kept waking up cold in parts, but it was better than I had expected, actually. 

We were up early the next morning for breakfast and breaking camp, reloading the kayaks and putting on the still wet wetsuit (this time I bagged the thermals, and just wore my undies under it which made it much easier to put on) and we were on the water at 8 and thrilled to have ANOTHER glorious day of kayaking.

 Mop

We backtracked a bit, and went down the main channel a little farther and to our delight saw a pair of penguins swimming and fishing for their food….it was really cool!

I am so thrilled that I chose the 2 day trip…my arms are killing me now…it was a bit of a stretch but not a devastatingly strenuous one.  I am glad there are a few days between today and the next time I get in a kayak to paddle around the shoreline of Able Tasman park.  By the end of the trip, as so often happens, we were all best buddies (except the breakup pair) and laughing and having an amazing time!  

 Another sighting of the penguins out fishing

Further notes on the Doubtful Sound Kayaking trip:

1. The water in the sound itself is actually brackish water. There is so much fresh water coming off the sides of the mountains from both rain water and spring/river water that it forms a top layer on the sea water of about 3-4 feet.  Then there is a milky dividing layer before the sea water.  Additionally, the water coming off the hills is so full of tannin (the substance which makes tea dark) that it turns this top layer of fresh water very dark.  I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures, but the water is almost black looking.  Consequently, the fish are all swimming in water which amounts to the same thing as them wearing dark sunglasses.  Hence, the traditionally deep water fish live not very deep in the sound…only about 30 meters rather than super deep…in fact not much actually lives on the floor of the sounds.  Apparently, it is really interesting to dive in the area because of these dynamics.  Also, black coral grows in the sounds, one of the more rare corals out there, and one which takes a very long time to grow. My host of the B&B I stayed at before going on the kayaking trip used to be a long-line fisherman and he had all kinds of stuff in his house that would get caught in the nets, one of them being a piece of black coral which was about 7” tall…something that would have taken hundreds of years to grow…it is actually illegal to have any black coral, but as it came up in his net, he decided to keep it.  Also, he had a few dried up sea horses, which would also come up in the nets…probably not terribly kosher, but interesting. 
2.  At our camp site, we had a river running behind us, and a good-sized one at that.  It is the water we used to drink and cook with.  They have nothing like giardia as we do at home…even when I quizzed them on it, they looked at me in confusion.  I am hoping that is true because I drank a whole lot of it.
3. The tide rose about 5 feet while we were there.  All the while we were carrying our kayaks over the wet slippery rocks and tree roots to take them to their racks, I kept thinking, why in the world don’t we just tie them up here and be done with it?  Well, I found out in the morning.  The water had risen and almost reached where the kayaks were racked.  One consolation was that it hadn’t gone out as far so putting them back in was about half the distance.
4. We kayaked primarily along the shore lines, as they were more protected and more interesting to look at.  We did some open water, but it was usually to cross from one section to another and if there was wind (which there wasn’t much for the entire trip) then that is definitely where we experienced it.
5. The first day out we hardly saw anyone out on the water, maybe 2 boats…maybe.  The second day we saw about 5 boats full of tourists, and that was a busy day.  Part of the reason I chose to do a trip on Doubtful Sound rather than Milford Sound is for that very reason.  Milford is much more spectacular and rugged and therefore the one that most cruise lines as well as local day cruises go out in.  While I loved Doubtful for kayaking, I am also looking forward to my fly over Milford and short 4 hour cruise inside the sound as well…I figure that I will have gotten the best of both worlds.
6. A word about the naming of the sounds, they aren’t actually sounds, rather fiords.  The difference is that sounds are formed by rivers carving out space which is backfilled by ocean water and fiords are formed by glaciers carving out space which is backfilled by ocean water. If you were to drain a sound, you would see a V shape valley, whereas a fiord is a U shape valley.  We actually saw this in some of the upper valleys of the fiord.  The concept and word “fiord” wasn’t really around when the sounds were named (found by captain Cook), and as they started out as sounds they so remained.  The Kiwis decided it was enough to just title the entire area as “Fiordland” and called it good.
7. Go Orange offers 1, 2, 3 and 5 day kayaking trips.  I have to say, if you are not a regular kayaker the 2 day will probably suit you just fine.  When we were close to getting back to the launch site, my shoulders were aching plenty, I had put on my gloves (brought along for warmth) and used them the second day.  A couple of folks were smart and brought cycling gloves (which I had but didn’t bring amongst all my gear) and they would have been super helpful.  Also by day 2 I was beginning to be a better paddler; sea kayaking paddling is much more level rather than perpendicular like when you are canoeing or white water kayaking…it is much more efficient.  I would label these insights as kayak learnings. J I think it will serve me well in Able Tasman.
8. On day one, Lisette was in the back and consequently the driver.  We had a rudder that you put down which hangs off the back of the kayak and is controlled by foot pedals of the person in the back.  We figured we would switch on the second day.  About 2 hours into the ride home on day two (I was driving), my pedals all of a sudden stopped working, in fact the rudder was stuck and only allowed us to turn left.  Our guide hollered at us to paddle on the left so that we would go right, but no amount of paddling would allow us to go right, we were soon heading in the complete opposite direction from the rest of the group and the harder we paddled, the faster we spun in circles out and away from everyone.  I could hear the laughter behind us, which to be fair, if I had been them watching us I would have been rolling too…it must have been quite a show! Blake, our guide, came out and yanked on the rudder and it straightened, and for a little while I once again had tension on my foot pedals.  But it wasn’t long before the same thing happened again…and by this time I was a little despairing.  I was trying so hard to press on the right pedal but all to no avail…so many things run through your head; am I really pressing it, is it my bad ankle that won’t allow me to press it properly, is it broken, is it going to keep doing this the rest of the day, am I just somehow being daft?  This time when Blake came to assist and I removed my spray skirt (the neoprene covering that snaps over the hole you sit in) I took a good look down at my feet and spied the culprit; a big sponge (used for cleaning up the kayak) had made its way to jam in the pedal gearing making it so they didn’t move at all.  Once I removed the sponge, things returned to normal and I actually became a pretty good driver.  It’s funny though, even after the sponge was removed, I still didn’t trust the steering or that I wouldn’t ‘do’ something again to render it useless.  It took a while before I gained confidence again in both the boat and myself that it would actually work as it was designed.  I am sure there is a lesson in there somewhere, one that will probably come out in a talk at some point, but I was fascinated at myself at the emotional toll it took; after all, having it stuck in one direction was even worse than being completely rudder-less…even though that too is terrible…but at least with no rudder you have some control over where you go if you paddle hard enough, but with a stuck rudder no matter how hard you paddle you will never get where you want to go, rather only in circles (and fast).  You have to stop paddling (breaking rule #1 to never stop for any length of time in a kayak) for a bit and fix the core problem.
9. The wildlife: you already know about the adorable penguins, and the terrible sandflies…still itching today from them...but there were also all kinds of other birds.  In fact, the birdsong here in New Zealand is one of the things which has made this trip really unique.  There is always birdsong, and it is beautiful!  I don’t know all the types of birds by any means, but we did see a local parrot, (from which we had to hide all our food and gear because they tear it up) and others, which I can’t remember the names of.  The Kiwi bird is nocturnal and you have to be in a specific place(s) to see them, and it is unlikely that I will while here.  Stewart island, off the southern tip of the South island is a birders paradise…there you see thousands of species of birds and most people who make the trip there do so specifically to go birding.  That might be a trip for another time as it sounds fascinating, but would have taken too much time on this trip.  But the birds which I have heard and continue to everywhere I go are really spectacular. There was a possibility of seeing dolphins on our trip, but they usually only move into the sound when the seas are rough, so our good weather was great for us, but not conducive to finding dolphins in the sound (fiord).

•