Day 54 5th March 2011

Milford Sound

Thompson Sound

Milford Sound

We were up early this morning as the ship sailed into Milford Sound. This is a fjord rather like those we saw in Norway a few years ago. The main difference is that these are heavily wooded and are classed as temperature rainforest which normally brings a picture of heat and humidity. However, it was cold enough to need a coat this morning and if anything it grew colder as the day progressed. This is the countryside that they filmed for Lord of the Rings. It is spectacular with steep mountains, glacial valleys and waterfalls. One of the waterfalls was 50 stories high. As you enter the fjord the first thing you notice is that the water changes colour as it changes from salt to fresh water. This is several hundred yards out into the sea showing the volume of fresh water coming out. The ship brought a specialist commentator on board and he told us that the fresh water can reach to depths of eight metres.

The trip down Milford sound took over two hours with the ship turning round at the head of the fjord so that everyone on both sides of the vessel could see everything. This also shows how wide these fjords are that a cruise liner can turn completely around in them. There were a few buildings at the head of the fjord, a few boats taking sightseers around and one or two kayaks to show the presence of people.

Once we left Milford Sound we moved south towards Thompson Sound which we reached after 3 hours sailing. This is another place that was first seen by Captain Cooke on one of his missions of exploration. The sea conditions were quite rough in that the motion was both up-and-down and side-to-side. It was not comfortable and best place to be was lying down. Thompson Sound was less rugged than Milford with gentler slopes but this only means that instead of sheer cliffs, it was only steep enough to exhaust mountain goats. The commentator explained that people had introduced the stoat in an effort to control the number of rabbits which had also been introduced by the settlers. However, the stoats also liked the native birds and so were rapidly destroying them. In an effort to control the stoats they had started a trapping programme on one of the large islands in the fjord to eradicate them in order to reintroduce the native animals.

We sailed through Thompson Sound into Doubtful Sound and then back to the open sea which was just as rough as when we had left it. On the way we passed a seal colony but not a single animal was visible. They were probably out at sea fishing. We did see several albatrosses. These are very large birds and are of two types, the Royals and the Wanderers. The ship continued south from Doubtful Sound for an hour to reach Break Sea Sound which has a passage to Dusky Sound. The passage (Echeron) is narrow and we were only a few hundred yards from the sides which for a ship of this size is nothing. The weather has got more cloudy and some rain fell but apparently this is more normal than the sunshine here in fjord land. A pod of bottlenose dolphins swam past the ship and played in the wake. This area is one of most remote places in New Zealand. There is no access except by the sea to here and again Captain Cooke spent several weeks in the region.  It was a fur seal hunting region but this was stopped in 1946 to prevent the seals being exterminated and they are now protected.

We left the fjords at about 5pm and headed south around the bottom of New Zealand on our way to Dunedin.