07:00, the alarm soundedm it's Christmas Day with Christmas Day weather. It's raining outside!
After a hot shower we packed and prepared to leave Te Anau. Ian presented me with a small Christmas stocking with a voucher inside - the receipt for our trip to Doubtful Sound. The stocking was a courtesy freebie sock from Singapore Airlines.
By 09:30 our Wilderness Cruise was under way crossing Lake Manapouri. Our first sight was of the Hunters mountains which have a fresh dusting of snow on their peaks, this is apparently unusual at Christmastime so we do, in effect, have a white Christmas!
Within the Keplar mountain range all of the mountain peaks are dusted with snow.
The cruise across Lake Manapouri connected with a bus tour through Wilmot Pass which terminated at Deep Cove. The bus tour was graced with some impressive waterfalls and exquisite moss carpets.
From Deep Cove we embarked another vessel and toured Doubtful Sound for 3 hours, reaching the Tasman Sea at the farthest extent of our journey. The weather had definately worsened as time progressed and at this point we faced horizontal sleet and gusty wind. The catamaran fared the conditions very well. Ian chose to film from outside while I remained dry inside if not warm. The captain then announced that the wather front due in 6 hours time was now directly upon us and the barometer reading had fallen five points in the last hour! With that a thunder clap and a bolt of lightening are heard... It's very cold inside the vessel let alone outside!
On our way back to Deep Cove there were hundreds of temporary waterfalls 1000 metres high that had appeared since we left for our voyage across the Sound. All were very impressive.
On reaching Deep Cove we were transported back to West Arm of Lake Manapouri, driven 2 kilometres underground to view the motor room of the hydroelectric power station which was interesting to see.
The nature of the weather we had encountered in the Sound was very apparent when we returned to Lake Manapouri and noticed the fresh dusting of snow on top of the Hunters mountains. Our white Christmas.
On disembarking the ferry we drove directly to Invercargill where we stay for two nights. Our only stop at Riverton revealed a very hazy glimpse of Stewart Island although Riverton harbour seemed quite nice to look at. Along the Southern Scenic Route many heavily windwept trees can be viewed from the roadside.
I cooked us a very poor strangled, nee poached, eggs on toast for our Christmas Day tea which, frankly, was highly amusing. It looked hideous and was served with one of our maturing wines from Hawkes Bay. Ian refused to let me take a picture of my dismal efforts for the benefit of our avid viewers of the website. You'll have to take my word for it, it was very poor!
We made a couple of telephone calls home for Christmas before retiring.
It was a strange Christmas Day all said, but pleasant enough nonetheless, and certainly different to a Christmas back home. This year we celebrated Christmas at 45 degrees South where normally we are closer to 45 degrees North!
Aside from our travels through Fiordland we covered a distance of 204 kilometres from Te Anau to Invercargill.