Australia Edition - Day 8

 Day 8: 2/19 - Fiordland National Park

Hello from Port Chalmers/Dunedin (Doo-nee-din), New Zealand! We are in our first port in New Zealand today. No specific plans, we’ll probably get off the ship and wander around for a bit.

Yesterday, we cruised through some of the fjords in Fiordland National Park. After 2.5 days at sea it was nice to see land. We woke up to our captain and then our cruise director letting us know we were in Milford Sound. I opened the curtains just as we were entering the sound and saw an unbelievable sight. Huge mountains were towering over us, disappearing into the fog and clouds as rain poured from the skies. Waterfall after waterfall after waterfall were crashing into the ocean, falling from mountain peaks hidden in the mists high above the ship. The rain was coming down in sheets that you could follow along the surface of the waters. The sights were stunning. I quickly threw on shoes and a jacket and went out onto our balcony to grab pictures and watch the incredible scenery that had been slowly carved out by the unceasing and relentless motion of ancient glaciers and the Tasman Sea.

I mentioned yesterday that Valerie and I have been to 2 fjords before this one. We have been to Montenegro twice, once on our honeymoon and once when we went to Greece in 2018. Most recently, we visited the Tracy Arm Fjord in Alaska in 2022. Our first time in Montenegro, we entered the Fjord at night and didn’t really get an appreciation for the majesty. The second time we went is etched into both our minds.

Since we had already been to Montenegro before and there weren’t any tours we wanted to do, we decided to take advantage of the spa deals they had while we were in port and booked a couples massage. Since the spa was quiet, they had us in an enormous room at the back of the ship that had a 180* view out the back of the ship. Our massage started right as we entered the fjord and we spent the next 90 minutes watching the incredible sights while getting massaged. It was an amazing experience.

When we were in Alaska, we knew we were going to cruise by a glacier in the Tracy Arm Fjord, but again, had no real expectations of what we would see. We spent the entire time we cruised the Tracy Arm Fjord on our balcony, again watching the incredible sights. We weren’t able to get close to the glacier, and while the glacier was beautiful, all the natural wonders that surround the glacier were just as fantastic.

All of our prior “fjording” experiences were in perfect weather, but yesterday was different. It was cold, wet, foggy, pouring down rain and I think was the most awe inspiring fjord experience we’ve had to date. New Zealand has 2 large islands, the North Island (Te Ike-a-Maui) and The South Island (Te Waipounamu). The Northern Island is where most of the larger cities are like Auckland and Wellington. The Southern Island is less populated and Fiordland National Park is located on the southwestern side of this island. Fiordland is the wettest part of New Zealand with rain almost every day of the year. Having 2 days without rain in Fiordland is considered a drought.

The waters in the fjords are hundreds of feet deep, but the top 10 feet are freshwater and under that is salt water. While we didn’t see any ourselves, there are hundreds of active glaciers in Fiordland.

We cruised around Milford Sound, turned around and headed back out to the open ocean. We were in this first fjord for about an hour. I was writing yesterday’s recap and it was really challenging to write. I would write a sentence or two, look up, see something that I had to take a picture of, go out to the balcony, take a picture, watch for a minute, then come back in to continue writing.

The waterfalls were incredible and I was sad to be leaving this majestic place, but we had more fjords to check out. Around 11:45 we got to Doubtful Sound. The sound was named after Captain James Cook’s comments when he initially discovered the sound. He thought it was “doubtful” they would be able to exit the sound due to the prevailing winds and continued on without exploring it.

The experience in Doubtful Sound was very different from our experience in Milford Sound. I’m not sure if it was due to differences in the weather or just the way the sound had evolved, or that we were on the Lido deck during the traversal but Doubtful Sound seemed much more vibrant. There were fewer waterfalls, but everything was bright green and vibrant. The weather was definitely better than it had been in the morning and sights were just as incredible, but the experience with Milford was lonelier? Quieter?

We headed up to the Lido for lunch right as we were entering Doubtful. Valerie decided on another burger, and I grabbed some food from the Indian buffet. The Indian buffet was pretty good. I had some goat biryani, chicken curry, daal, some veggies, grilled paneer, and a piece of naan. All the meat had bones in it, so you had to be careful while eating. It was all pretty good, but the chicken curry was the highlight.

We reached the end of Doubtful Fjord and headed back out to the open water to head to today’s port, Port Chalmers. Once we were out of the fjord, the water got very rough. We had swells of 15-20 ft’ as we rounded the southwestern corner of the Southern Island and headed east. The ship was rocking and rolling until late that night. With the larger swells, the rain returned as well. Instead of going up to the sports deck, we hit the treadmills in the gym. After we had completed our walk for the day, we went back to the cabin to rest before dinner. Valerie took some Dramamine to make sure she didn’t get sea sick and took a nap. 

We got moving at 7:15 to get ready for dinner. Our Maitre D’, Aaron, has been fantastic. Aside from making sure we were happy with our table, he has been up singing and dancing during Showtime with the rest of the waitstaff, and as we were walking into the restaurant last night, he stopped us to make sure our stomachs were ok and gave us some tips to help with seasickness. He also introduces himself as “ay ay Ron” which makes us giggle every time. We have had more interactions with our Maitre D’ on this trip than we have had across all other trips and we really like him.

For dinner, Valerie ordered the broccoli and cheese soup, a caesar salad, the Sunday roast dinner, and the bitter and blanc bread pudding. I ordered a salad with vinaigrette, the special appetizer of the day, and the Sunday Roast. 

Do you know the difference between Bambi and Roo from Winnie the Pooh? I know who ate Roo’s mother. The special was a kangaroo lettuce wrap with chilies. I had never eaten kangaroo before. It had the consistency of ground beef, but the flavor was very different from any meat I have had previously. It was definitely tasty, but most of the flavor came from the chilies and sauce it was cooked in. It’s not  something I will seek out in the future, but I wouldn’t turn it down if offered again.

Valerie’s soup was disappointing, flavors were kind of muddled. The salads were good, the Sunday roast was better than the prior day’s rib eye roast, and Valerie’s bread pudding was really good. I decided to skip the dessert and just enjoy my coffee. 

After dinner we met up with John in the Red Frog Pub. Maureen was down with sea sickness so we didn’t get to see her. Music Motion was playing variety music in the pub and we listened for a set. John is convinced that Valerie is good luck for the Wests Tigers since they haven’t lost a match since she’s been a fan. We then headed back to our cabin for the night.

When I woke up this morning, the waters were much calmer than they were last night. We hit high winds and the port was busier than normal so we got into port about 3 hours later than expected. They didn’t start letting folks off the ship until almost noon. They did push the time to be back on board to 6:45 to give everyone some extra time, but apparently people were really anxious to get into port as we heard frequent reminders over the intercom to not go to the gangway.

We don’t know what we will be doing for the rest of the day, but I’m sure we’ll find some trouble before the day is done! Love you guys and we’ll touch base again tomorrow!