Horror of horrors, we had to set the alarm today for 6:30am as we are spending the day cruising the fjords. When we got up we where a mile or so off shore heading for solid rock. A pilot boat dropped off our pilot and we went in through an opening narrower than the length of the ship. We cruised in about three miles to the head of Milford Sound. The sides were almost vertical all the way in. At the head of the fjord we did a 180 with the bow and stern thrusters. The area were we turned around might have been twice the length of the ship, pretty impressive. We are now at sea no more than a half mile off shore en route to Thompson Sound and we exit Doubtful Sound. It's pretty spectacular, clear sunny day, cool, 12c.
Magnificent scenery. Very hard to capture it on a camera. It's all and more what we thought it would be. Did my walk on the deck and the sound of the waves off the ship are deafening. Very invigorating. We are following the coastland of southwest New Zealand. We have lots of pictures to post. At 12:30 we will be going into another fiord. Might not get lunch today. Met Larry walking with another woman going the other way, the same one as the other day. Not sure which is faster, his walking or talking. For some strange reason he kept asking me to walk with them. After, he kept saying, "I didn't meet her, she just came out at the same time I did".
We saw some dolphins playing in our wake in the sound. They were pretty small, so I don't think they were bottle nose....Lots of pitching, some pretty impressive bow waves.
Finished our day of scenic cruising, it was unbelievable, we did one fjord and two other inlets where we connected with another on to get back to the sea. Each was about an hour and a half at probably eights knots. We went through areas narrower than the length of the ship with near vertical walls. In the last one there were virtually no signs of man, no buildings, no roads, no channel markers, just this great big bloody ship. The wind funnelled down the fjords and at times was very strong, probably near 50 knots. Now we are going around the south coast of the South Island heading towards Dunedin I think. We're no more than one mile offshore, seas have calmed down somewhat. We've been on the ship for a week and have had only two ten hour stops, perfect. Big music night tonight, fifties and sixties, plus, Rock and roll trivia, sooooo we'll see how we do
Great dinner last night. Good company. We sit with different people every night. It's a lot of fun. Have met some very nice people. Hurt my left hand last night going outside. Wind was so strong, door very heavy. Could've broken my fingers. Luckily, only 2 fingers were hurt, one is very bruised and swollen, but not broken.
Larry bombed out on the trivia, nine out of sixteen, winner got them all, smart old buggers.
Port Chalmers, Dunedin
Arrived in Port Chalmers this am. We're in an industrial port, with a great big container ship right beside us loading, I'll know where to find Larry, and on the other side is a mountain of pulpwood awaiting a ship I suppose. We will go ashore to find some WiFi to send our blog off. We'll be back here with the car in a month or so and will spend a couple of days, there's a train trip Beth is very excited about. Unusually cool today. High of only 17 degrees. A great piano guy is playing tonight. He played Great Ball's of Fire the other night, he is really good.
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