I'm gonna eat you little fishie...

3rd February - Doubtful Sound, South Island

'Come to New Zealand and see Milford Sound'. That is, I understand, what someone said to all of those nasty, flaky, coach tours that you see tearing up the countryside on a tight schedule. Therefore, it only seemed natural to make our way down to Doubtful, Milford's more remote and less travelled buddy. Even then, there is a danger of getting on a 70 person, Yangtze cruise style vessel. No thanks.

So we took an overnight cruise on a 6 person boat captained by Chris, who was a dude. And it was probably our best 24 hrs in the country.

The sound itself (named by Cook who considered it doubtful that, were they to sail in, there would be enough wind to bring them back out) is a true pleasure. The mountains on either side rise up over 1km almost straight from the water. It is also full of wildlife including dolphins, penguins and seals.

But the most impressive thing about the cruise was the pace. As you may have gathered, we are ideally suited to taking on life at the pace of an old person and this is exactly what we got. After dropping anchor in a secluded bay, Chris prepared for us a buffet lunch which consisted of breads, salads and a mountain of freshly caught crayfish. Munch on that.

After some more sitting down and being shown more amazing aspects of the sound, we stopped for a little 'fushing'. I have had a go at this game before as a scout, but to little avail. However, it appeared that this water was more fush than water and all of us had bites after 10s of seconds of our hooks reaching the bottom. No tiddlers either as the pictures show!

The fishing took a more serious turn when Tom, our German shipmate, caught an angry looking little shark. The man sweated about 7 litres just reeling him in. Once on the ship, Chris warned us that he would 'have your foot off'; information that had us climbing the walls to get away from the prehistoric brute.

Later, as we enjoyed a meal of blue cod and mind-blowingly tender venison, Chris recounted stories of catching enormous sharks and shooting deer. All in that funny accent that Kiwis have.

There's little left to say. It was both relaxing and fantastic fun all amid some stunning scenery. If you come to the South Island, this is one other thing that you must do. You can find more information at Deep Cove Charters.