MANAPOURI. Gateway to Doubtful and Dusky Sounds, Manapouri is a Doubtful Sound Wilderness Cruise small township, with some accommodation for visitors. • 8 hours Lake Manapouri, with its 34 islands and magnificent mountain backdrop, is often described as New Zealand’s • Oct - April, 9.30 daily; May - September, 9.45 daily most beautiful lake. Enormous protest in the 1970s saved the lake from a plan to raise its level to produce more • You cruise across Lake Manapouri to West Arm and go by electricity for an aluminium smelter. coach underground to the Power Station. A coach then takes you over the Wilmot Pass to Deep Cove where you board a catamaran MANAPOURI - SIGHTSEEING/EXCURSION for a cruise on remote Doubtful Sound. Manapouri Underground Power Station Excursion This is a fascinating dayout in Fiordland. If you have to choose between sounds, we recommend Milford for its breathtaking • 4 hours grandeur. However, tranquil Doubtful Sound is less developed • Oct - April, 12.30pm daily for tourists and has the bonus of the amazing technological feat of the underground powerhouse. • Te Anau coach connection N.B. Fiordland Travel gives a discount when you buy the • You go by launch across the lake to West Arm, then Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound and Te Anau Glowworm Caves travel by coach down a 2km tunnel, seemingly into the excursions together. bowels of the earth. It’s an exciting and interesting trip, but not for the claustrophobic, as the coach appears to be only MANAPOURI - PICNIC/BEACH centimetres from the granite walls. Frasers Beach On arrival in the huge machine One of Fiordland’s best spots for swimming. There is also a short hall, you learn how the lake’s walk from here to Pearl Harbour and the township. waters are diverted through vertical penstocks to turbines in the powerhouse 213m below the ground. From here the water is discharged by way of a 10km tailrace into Deep Cove on Doubtful Sound. 1.