White-faced heron

Today's the day ........................ for some Doubtful photography

We had the most wonderful trip today to Doubtful Sound. The weather was good - not a drop of rain all day. We could see right to the tops of the mountains.

It involved quite a lot of organising to get us there. We were picked up very early from where we were staying in Te Anou and taken by coach to Manapouri. There, we got on the first boat and sailed the length of Lake Manapouri to the Power Station at West Arm. Then we were taken by another coach over the pass to Deep Cove. That's where we joined the catamaran that would sail us through Doubtful Sound right to the end where it meets the Tasman Sea.

It was a very special experience to be in a place so far from habitation and really only accessible by sea. The sides of the Sound were very thickly forested inspite of the fact that they were practically vertical They rose upwards for several thousand feet out of the dark water of the channel - and for the most part had never been walked on by any humans. It was the scale of it all that took your breath away - and was almost impossible to convey in a picture.

That, at least is my excuse for not managing to take any photographs that do any justice to what I saw! I failed miserably to get a decent shot of any of the wildlife we caught sight of - two sorts of penguins, seals or seabirds.

So, by way of compensation - here's a little white-faced heron that I saw when we got back to Te Anau. You'll just have to take my word for all the rest .............................!