February 21, 2018 – Fiordland, New Zealand

Cruising from Sydney the past two days, the Tasman Sea lived up to its advance billing as an area of strong winds and rough seas. The ship has been rocking and bobbing a lot, and it’s been difficult just to walk down the hallways. Jim checked the weather on our stateroom TV a couple of times yesterday (for just a moment each time). One time the wind was 51 knots and the second time it was 60 knots (59 mph and 69 mph respectively). We don’t know what the speed was the remainder of the day, but it was definitely windy and seas were choppy!

When we awakened early this morning for our full-day cruise through Fiordland, it was cloudy and gloomy, but not rainy – hooray!

At 7:00 a.m., the ship slowed down to pick up two pilots to guide the ship through the fjords today, along with an interpretive guide who give us a running verbal description of what we were seeing, over the ship’s loudspeaker system.

The area known as Fiordland is a remote wilderness region in the southwestern corner of the South Island of New Zealand. This part of South Island is dominated by snow-capped mountains called the Southern Alps, with glacier-carved and now ocean-flooded western valleys. New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park covers 3.1 million acres – nearly 5% of the nation’s total land mass – and was declared a World Heritage Area in 1986.

The name "Fiordland" obviously comes from a variant spelling of the Scandinavian word "fjord,” but we don’t know why it’s spelled differently. The original English settlers also mistakenly called the fjords to be “sounds.” They are definitely fjords, which are commonly defined as long, nar­row inlets with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. We don’t know why New Zealand still calls them “sounds.” Tradition lives on.

Way back in history, glaciers covered this area, gouging and deepening U-shaped valleys through the mountains, until they eventually reached the sea. Sea water then filled into the valleys, forming fjords. Fiordland National Park contains 14 spectacular fjords along 125 miles of rugged mountainous terrain and coastline.

Our guide told us that weather here (between 44° and 46° South latitude) is dominated by frequent westerly wind flows. When moisture-laden air from the Tasman Sea reaches the mountains, it is forced to rise over the barrier of mountains. It then cools quickly and creates heavy rain and snow. Within the park, annual rainfall varies from 47 inches (in Te Anau) to 315 inches (in Milford Sound). He said that rain falls in Fiordland, on average, over 200 days each year. At Milford Sound, it rains 300 days per year. We got lucky today!

Much of the terrain in Fiordland is classified as temperate rain forest. Evergreen trees and shrubs cling to steep faces of hard rock covered only by a thin layer of peat – humus and moss.

Interestingly, within the fjords the heavy rainfall creates a permanent freshwater layer (about 130 feet deep) above the sea water. We were told that the freshwater layer appears to be black in color because tannin leachs into the fresh water as it flows downhill through vegetation on its way down to the fjord.

Captain James Cook and his crew were the first Europeans to set eyes on this dramatic part of the world in 1770 and 1773. During his 1773 voyage, he established a tiny settlement and spent five weeks in Dusky Sound. Cook mapped the area and named all the fjords. His names are still in use today.

Here is the route on which the local pilots led us today, visiting five of the “sounds” from north to south.

Crystal Symphony entered Milford Sound soon after 7:00 a.m. Milford runs inland from the Tasman Sea for about nine miles in length – the shortest of the “sounds.” It is narrow where we entered (600 yards wide) and then opens to about one mile in width at its widest point. Our destination lecturer told us that there are many walking trails within the park, and one of them at Milford Sound takes about four days to complete. He claims, however, that the scenery views are very rewarding. We were told depth of the water is about 1,000 feet.

Highlights of our cruise through Milford Sound include steep cliffs on both sides of the fjord and, of course, several waterfalls cascading hundreds of feet into the deep black fjord. Milford Sound has two permanent waterfalls ─ Lady Bowen Falls and Stirling Falls. Naturally, after heavy rain, temporary waterfalls run down the steep-sided rock faces that line the fiord. Nearby Mitre Peak is nearly one mile in elevation.

Following along on the map, after turning around and returning to the Tasman Sea from Milford Sound, we followed the mountainous coastline offshore on our port (left) side down to Thompson Sound. We turned into Thompson Sound at about 1:00 p.m. and cruised through a small passage into the much longer Doubtful Sound (about 25 miles in length). Doubtful is also the deepest of the fjords (about 1,400 feet deep). Our guide told us that this fjord is rich in animal life, including Bottlenose Dolphins, New Zealand Fur Seals, and Fiordland Crested Penguins, although we didn’t see any of them. Doubtful is apparently known for “The Sound of Silence.” There are no roads leading to Doubtful Sound as there are to Milford, so it’s isolated and there are less people visiting Doubtful. We exited Doubtful Sound at about 2:30, returning southbound along the coast, in the Tasman Sea.

Our next turn was into Breaksea Sound, which eventually joined into Dusky Sound, one of the largest and most remote of the wilderness areas in New Zealand. Dusky is 25 miles long and five miles wide at its widest point. Once again, there are no roads reaching Dusky Sound. Access by sea or air only. It’s known as a haven for endangered species. We entered Breaksea Sound at 4:00 p.m. and almost immediately saw a large pod of dolphins (at least 10 of them) off the starboard side of the bow.

This is a very remote spot for visitors, and our local guide told us that he best way to see both Breaksea Sound and Dusky Sound is via cruise ship. We didn’t reach Dusky Sound until about 5:00 p.m. We had several invitations and reservations tonight, so we didn’t have time to dedicate more time to looking at this fjord. To be honest, from our vantage point on a cruise ship moving swiftly along, the three fjords didn’t look much different from each other. We would need to spend more time here to discover the features of each fjord in more depth.

We can definitely say that Fiordland is remote, pristine, and unspoiled. Much of it is accessible for exploration only by boat or seaplane. We wish it had been sunnier for the visit, but at least it wasn’t raining.

We’ve recently attended two excellent stage shows in the Galaxy Lounge and an equally excellent “Magic Castle at Sea” show in the Avenue Saloon. The magic show featured Master Magician Chris Capehart, whom we had seen perform several years ago. It is a given with these professional magicians that they will totally fool us with unbelievable tricks, especially the sleight-of-hand skills that Mr. Capehart displays in close-up venues. But he also has a quick mind and comical sense of humor that we enjoy.

Monday (Feb 19) was the concert production of “Rocket Man: A Tribute to Elton John” starring Neil Lockwood. His performance was great, as was the Crystal Symphony Showband and members of the Crystal Ensemble of Singers & Dancers.

Then last night (Tue, Feb 20) was “A Night at the Pops” starring Australian piano sensation Bernard Walz. We had seen him perform a different show, “A Man & A Baby Grand” on Crystal Serenity less than a week ago. He played nearly non-stop for a full hour while the ship was experiencing very rough seas. The music of George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, and Scott Joplin that he played were just incredible. The more up-close, intimate setting of the Galaxy Lounge on Symphony, compared to Serenity, may have added to our appreciation for how fantastic Mr. Walz is on the piano.

Tomorrow we’re scheduled to visit Stewart Island, New Zealand.

Jim & Ginny