Experience True Silence in Doubtful Sound

“With towering snow-capped mountains, surreal waterfalls, crystal clear lakes and lush rain forests Doubtful Sound in New Zealand is a destination frozen in time… just like when it was discovered 15,000 years ago,” Nivedita Jayaram Pawar writes for Architectural Digest India.

“What would the end of the earth look like? Most probably like Doubtful Sound,” Pawar writes. “Not only due to its distance from civilisation but also because of the immense landscape which is home to chiselled cliffs, turquoise waters, native bushes and crashing waterfalls, the place is the most pristine, untouched landscape you’ll ever see. Located in the southwest corner of the South Island, Doubtful Sound is part of Fiordland National Park. The 14 fiords here (including the world-famous Milford Sound) are full of intriguing geology which include deep forests carved by glaciers over 100,000 years ago and then flooded by the sea.

“Getting to Doubtful Sound itself is an adventure. After a bus ride from Queenstown, you hop on a boat for a 40 minute ride across Lake Manapōuri. Then comes a bus ride over the Wilmot Pass towards Doubtful Sound. The natural beauty there is unbelievable and so breathtaking that it feels like you’re inside a postcard.

“The bus pulls up into Deep Cove and you see the fiord stretched out – empty with the forest-clad mountains on each side covered in hundreds of silver waterfalls.

“We set off from Deep Cove and cruised the full length of the Sound, ending up at Tasman Sea with the captain’s cheerful voice on the loudspeaker pointing out the mountains and coves, birds and marine life. Doubtful Sound makes you feel dwarfed by nature. The glacier carved peaks bathed in green and over 200 rainfall days per year ensure there is not a patch of brown in sight. And no phone reception means a forced break from civilisation.”

Original article by Nivedita Jayaram Pawar, Architectural Digest India, December 27, 2019.