Doubtful Sound

Manapouri is Maori for 'anxious heart' so, when I had spent a few days troubled by the realities of life, it was appropriate that my journey to Doubtful Sound should start there.
Early in the morning just as the sun was rising (cue song) about 40 of us sailed from Pearl Harbour at one end of Lake Manapouri  to its West Arm at the other end.

Doubtful Sound from Wilmot Pass

Then we boarded a coach to cross the intervening  mountains, through the Wilmot Pass, to Deep Cove at the head of the fiord. From here we sailed on another boat down the fiord, making detours along the way into side inlets until we could see ahead of us the white foam of the surf of the Tasman Sea.

We saw more Fur seals, Bottle Nosed dolphins - which leapt spectacularly through the wash of the boat, and Fiordland Crested penguins.

 At one point the skipper announced that he was going to shut down the engines and asked everyone not to talk but only to listen. Everyone obeyed. All I could hear was the gentle slap of water against the side of the boat, far away birdsong and the distant rushing from waterfalls cascading down the mountainsides.
The anxious heart had been beguiled and calmed.