Doubtful Sound

The trip to Doubtful Sound, dubbed ‘Nature’s Masterpiece’, commences with a cruise on Manapouri to the underground power station at the end of the lake’s West Arm. After leaving the launch, a bus descends the 1 mile (2km) spiral of the access tunnel, deep into the bowels of the earth, to the power station’s machine hall.

Here visitors can admire the ingenuity that was required to carve this huge cavern from the solid granite. After the tour of the machine hall the bus leaves the power station to climb over Wilmot Pass (2,197ft/670m) to Deep Cove in Doubtful Sound, which is then explored on a catamaran.