Monday, Day 37 - Feb 12 - Cruising Fjords at Milford Sound

Opened the curtains to find a cloudy, rainy day. This would be a great sailing day if the sun were out. Land, the southeast tip of the South Island, is very visible even through the rain and low clouds. It looks and is a very rugged, remote National Park area with fjords and inland lakes. We drove down the eastern side of the park on the way to the south coast in 2009 and it is a beautiful area.

We are due to enter Milford Sound between 1:30 and 2PM. The Captain is hoping the weather lifts for our time in the Sound. Fingers and toes crossed!

Dick goes to breakfast and Carolyn goes back to bed for awhile before ordering room service. There is a lecture this morning, but it doesn’t appeal to Dick, "Commercial Suborbital Spaceflight." Our plan for the day is simple - to do nothing but rest. We do let our girls in around noon to clean up our room. They are a sweet pair and so eager to please!

We have had so many port days recently I haven’t mentioned the ship board activities since there usually aren't to many when we are in port. Today  besides the lecture, there is bingo at noon and deck games during the morning, plus the always present bridge in the card room. And if that isn’t enough to wear one out there is more bridge and other card and board games in the afternoon along with tea and needle work and Trivia.

About 1:30PM the big Event begins; we pass through the narrow channel into Milford Sound. It is quite a different experience from 2009 when we took a small excursion boat from the park office and explored the sound. We came out to the entrance then, but entering by ship is definitely more impressive. We still have a very low ceiling and some rain, but that is predicated to improve as we move up the Sound.

As we move along, we see lots more excursion boats looking at the wildlife along the shores and the waterfalls. The ceiling has lifted and while not a blue bird day it is probably a more accurate picture of Milford Sound.

Dick spends the afternoon on the top deck with most of the passengers, taking pictures. Carolyn enjoys the view from her lounge chair on the balcony. We re-board our15 wandering passengers and head for the Tasman Sea. We are given a beautiful rainbow as we leave the Sound. By 6PM we have off loaded the pilot and are running along the coast of New Zealand before turning toward Sydney.

Dick goes to dinner and Carolyn has room service again. The girls come in and batten down the balcony as we are expecting high winds and rough seas tonight, Welcome to the Tasman Sea!  Jack reminds us to buckle his bed belt!