The history of Doubtful Sound / Patea is short on people and long on names: a Māori name, an explorer's doubt, and a road built for a power station. The day trips among the Doubtful Sound New Zealand tours cross that history on the way in, from the station at West Arm to the pass named after a surveyor.
Early Māori named the fiord Patea, which Visit Fiordland translates as place of silence. You will hear why when your boat stops in one of the arms. There is no settlement on the fiord, then or now.
The fiord lies inside Te Wāhipounamu, the South West New Zealand World Heritage Area, which takes in Fiordland National Park. The park was established in 1952 and became World Heritage in 1986.
Captain Cook sailed past the entrance in 1770. From the sea it was only just visible. Cook judged it doubtful that the ship could sail back out against the prevailing westerly, so it went on the chart as Doubtful Harbour, and the ship sailed on.
Cook never went in. If your cruise runs out to the mouth of the fiord, you can see what the crew saw: a narrow gap in a steep coast, and the wind blowing straight into it.
Many years later, Visit Fiordland says, whalers and sealers renamed it Doubtful Sound. The name stuck, though it is a fiord, not a sound. Kekeno, the fur seals, still rest on the rocks towards the open sea.
Cook came back to Fiordland three years later. In 1773 the expedition spent five weeks in Dusky Sound, further south, DOC says. It remains without a road; the longer helicopter flight from Te Anau lands above it and above Doubtful Sound.
In 1888 a University of Otago professor, Mainwaring-Brown, died exploring west of Lake Manapouri. R. Murrell, searching for the professor, became the first European to climb to the pass that year. In 1897 the surveyor E. H. Wilmot mapped the area, and Wilmot Pass carries the surveyor's name.
By 1921 a tourist lodge stood at Deep Cove, with walking trips from Manapouri over the old track. So the day you take now, lake then pass then fiord, has been sold to visitors for a century.
The Manapouri Power Station sits at West Arm, at the far end of the lake. Work began in 1964 and it was commissioned in 1971. Its machine hall was cut from granite 200 m below the level of the lake.
The water leaves through a tailrace tunnel about 10 km long to Deep Cove. A second tunnel was finished in 2002. There are no tours of the station, but on your trip you may have time at the information centre at West Arm.
The first plan was to raise Lake Manapouri to feed the station. The protest against it became the Save Manapouri Campaign. Its 1970 petition gathered 264,907 signatures, nearly one in ten New Zealanders.
The lake was not raised. Guardians of Lakes Manapouri, Monowai and Te Anau were appointed to watch over the levels, with members from the campaign. You cross the lake they saved on every trip.
Until the 1960s the pass was reached only from the sea or on foot. The gravel road was built from 1963 to 1965 to carry loads of up to 97 tonnes from ships at Deep Cove to the station. It remains the only road on the mainland that connects to no other road.
That is why your coach waits at West Arm. The buses are stationed at the lake end of the road, and the boat brings you to them.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| Before 1770 | Māori know the fiord as Patea, the place of silence |
| 1770 | Captain Cook names it Doubtful Harbour and sails on |
| 1773 | Cook spends five weeks in Dusky Sound, to the south |
| Later years | Whalers and sealers rename it Doubtful Sound |
| 1888 | A professor dies exploring west of the lake; a searcher climbs the pass |
| 1897 | E. H. Wilmot surveys the area; the pass takes the surveyor's name |
| 1921 | A tourist lodge opens at Deep Cove, with walking trips from Manapouri |
| 1952 | Fiordland National Park is established |
| 1963-1965 | The road over the pass is built for the power station |
| 1964 | Work starts on the power station |
| 1970 | The Save Manapouri petition gathers 264,907 signatures |
| 1971 | The power station is commissioned |
| 1986 | The park becomes World Heritage |
| 2002 | A second tailrace tunnel to Deep Cove is completed |
Every day trip crosses Lake Manapouri and the pass to the fiord: compare where each one starts.
Patea, Cook's naming and the whalers are Visit Fiordland's; Dusky Sound and the park dates are the Department of Conservation's, checked 26 September 2026. The station, the tunnels, the petition, the pass and the road are from the Wikipedia articles cited below, which draw on Meridian, Heritage New Zealand and New Zealand history sources.
Seven hours from the jetty in Manapouri: the lake by boat, the pass by coach and about 2 hours on the fiord with nature guides. You drive yourself to the start.
From $207 per person
Check Availability
Eight and a half hours from Lakefront Drive in Te Anau: the coach to Manapouri, the lake, the pass and a 3-hour cruise. Food on sale on board, card only.
From $216 per person
Check Availability
Twelve hours from 88 Beach Street in Queenstown by coach, lake boat and the pass, with a cruise of about 2 hours 45 minutes on the fiord.
From $277 per person
Check AvailabilityNext: read about the wildlife, plan the route on getting to Doubtful Sound, or compare every tour on Doubtful Sound Tours.