RealNZ - Doubtful Sound Wilderness Cruise

Posted by Karen Freeman from United Kingdom on12 Mar 2026

arrow_back RealNZ - Doubtful Sound Wilderness Cruise

Karen Freeman said... We have been staying in Queenstown with our son & had done our research previous to arriving. I hadn't realised that he had already done the Milford excursion twice already, but we had firmly decided on Doubtful. We camped just down the road at Manapouri Campsite & had a lovely sunrise walk to the jetty, it was already proving to be a good start due to the small amount of people, and only 1 boat leaving. We chose to sit inside, purely because it was still quite cold, but this was not a problem, as the best was yet to come! A nice transition to our coaches, with lots more entertaining information en route to the next jetty. Boarding the boat was quick & straightforward, this time we decide to sit outside - not right on top, but undercover at the back which turned out to be a perfect location. The weather for us on this day was calm, sunny with no wind or rain forecast, it stayed this way until a little cloud on the way back at lunchtime. We pre-booked the packed lunches and a cheeseboard, highly recommend to do both, however I transferred the cheeseboard into one of our empty lunch boxes so we could easily eat al fresco! The highlight for us was when the boat stopped and switched off engines & coffee machines where we sat in absolute silence for 10-15 mins. A silence I haven't really experienced anywhere else - very goosebumps indeed. As the weather was so calm, (according to the skipper) were able to navigate further out of the Fiordland than usual into the Tasman sea, where we saw so many seals lazing around, playing & fishing. En route we also saw Little Blue Penguins, which was quite a treat! The scenery is spectacular, and photos don't do it justice, our son said (even before we stopped the engine) that he would recommend this tour over Milford any day, he didn't want to get off the boat! I'm so pleased to have done this tour, what an amazing experience, thank you