No Rain, no...

Pit, pat, pit, pat, pit, pit , pit. It was raining, we could hear the familiar sound on the fly of our tent. Rain had fallen the night before and more was on the way, but we had booked ourselves on a cruise of Doubtful Sound and had no choice but to ride the 20km to the next town. We packed our wet tent and panniers and headed out. The ride was not all that exciting, mostly downhill through farm land. However, our entire ride from Te Anau to Manapouri was graced with rainbow after rainbow, peaking out from within the mist, lingering between the mountains of Fiordland National Park- just a hint of what was instore the following day.

Pit, pat, pit, pat, pit, pit, pat. The rain continued to fall. But we had a 'plan'. It was cruise day. So we packed the wet tent, put on full head-to-toe rain gear and headed down to the dock. When we boarded the boat there was no sign of it stopping. Luckily, there was a covered, glassed-in portion of the boat....which steamed up within 10 minutes of the 20 tourists getting on board.

"Great. I can't believe I am paying to sit on this stupid boat in the pouring rain all day." I thought to myself (although I might as well have said it outloud as Rob could probably tell by my body language). "What a waste".

"Hope everyone's dressed for rain" our guide/driver/captain said "No wind today, so no chance of this blowing over. But don't worry, Doubtful Sound comes alive in the rain".

Doubtful, I thought.

But within the hour, things started to shift, lift, disperse and clear.

And then there they were again...those rainbows! And some of the most incredible scenery and topography I have ever seen.

"You are one lucky group" the guide said with a coy smile.
I think he was just putting us on with the 'rain all day' lecture, but it really did make the day that much sweeter, expecting rain and getting rainbows instead.

At first the sun peaked through the clouds, next it spread them apart creating huge swaths of sky blue. Before we knew it, we were cuising through Doubtful Sound towards the Tasman Sea, sunshine on our faces, wind in our hair, mist rising in the fiords, rainbows arching overhead and just to top it off....a pod of bottlenose DOLPHINS swimming and playing alongside the boat.
We sat out on the deck sipping tea and hot chocolate and eating 'free' cookies, taking it all in.

At one point Rob looked over to me...
"So THIS is what it feels like to be a tourist"
I just smiled and nodded.
"I guess so!"