Luxury !

Us ready for the cruise
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WOW ! We had saved money from camping instead of staying in Youth hostels so we treated ourselves to an over night cruise on Doubtful Sound! It is supposed to be on e of the most prettiest sounds but also the most inaccessible. So to just go on a day cruise would mean by the time you got there you would have to turn around again !

We traveled across Lake Manapouri ( with free tea and coffee !), then got a bus to the sound ( lots of sandflies! ). Then we got on our boat, it was beautiful with sails that we used later in the cruise. We were shown down to our rooms , we had opted for the cheapest option - a quad share- but guess what ?? We got up graded !! Into a room of 3 with our own en-suite and a door! ( the others only had curtains !

coffee before we go!
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We were then greeted with homemade warm muffins and tea and coffee !

We sailed along the sound for a while and saw some sea lions lying on some rocks and spotted some cute little yellow-eyed penguins !We sailed out to the Tasman sea. We were given some delicious soup before we went into one of the arms. We had a choice of some different activities. Julia and I decided to go Kayaking as I had wanted to go for ages.

we started out well, but Julia and I were at the back chatting to the guide, then before I knew it the rest of the group was miles ahead and I could see julia in the distance paddling to try and catch up. I spent a while enjoying the sound. You could really appreciate the size of the mountains at kayak level, with the water gently lapping around my boat. It was a beautiful sunny day and there were great reflections on the water, it was really peaceful before I realized I really needed to catch up with the rest of the group. I was so slow one of the guided had to tow me ! I seemed to lack the technique or something ! A bit embarrassing !

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We had a great buffet in the evening with a choice of 5 desserts ( we had a bit of each !)

The following day we sailed around the sound and made our way back .It was a great experience and we both loved it.