Doubtful Sound
A striking landscape of ancient, glacially-carved valleys, Doubtful Sound Patea is 41 km long and has unrivaled beauty. Discover a natural landscape that is pristine, rugged and awe-inspiring with Over The Top Helicopters tours
The beauty of this remote region is the inaccessibility and only a limited number of visitors can reach the sound each day.
The catchment basin of Doubtful Sound is generally steep terrain that is heavily forested except for locations where surface rock exposures are extensive.
Spend just a short amount of time immersed in Doubtful Sound Patea and it is easy to understand why early Māori named the fiord, Patea-meaning ‘place of silence’. Here visitors find silence amongst a dramatic landscape with echoing birdsong or cascading waterfalls the only sound to break the stillness.
Doubtful Sounds has an abundance of wildlife unique to the area. The fiord is home to one of the southernmost populations of bottlenose dolphins. Other wildlife to be found in Doubtful Sound includes fur seals and penguins, or even large whales. Southern right whales and humpback whales are the most frequently seen especially the later.
