Day 7-Fjordland National Park

Notice the CA coats

Up early today for a cruise through several fjords in Fjordland National Park, a World Heritage Site since 1986. It is huge, one of the largest parks in the world at 3.1 million acres. And what acres they are! Think Yosemite dropping into the ocean, with trees clinging to the sides of the cliffs. The trees themselves are interesting, as the predominate tree is an evergreen beech with low-growing shrubs and smaller trees underneath.

We cruised into Milford Sound just as the sun was coming over the mountains, and since it had rained yesterday, there were waterfalls everywhere. The rock is so hard (and so old, some 500 million years) that the water does not soak it much, but runs off the mountain rapidly. Lucky for the plants that it rains often, 200 days a year. It did not rain today!

All the white streaks:
waterfalls

Bishop's Mitre Mt.
5000+ feet high

That's snow in the background

Again, snow in the back

Looking E into Milford Sound as we left

Entering the ocean with the western coast
of New Zealand looking great

After doing a 180 (dang degree character will not work) turn in the fjord we left to head further down the west of the South Island. It is surprising to me that we are at only about 45 S (and 167 E ). That is about as far south as Portland is north, and only half way to the south pole. For some reason I thought we should be closer to the South Pole than that. We cruised through two more fjords, Thompson and out through Doubtful, and then through Breaksea and out Dusky Sound. Needless to say, the last two have very large islands between them, which makes it possible to sail around without turning around. I tried to find out how deep the fjords are, but no luck. You're going to have to look it up yourself. Of the three, Milford was the most dramatic, although Dusky Sound is historic in that Captain Cook spent five weeks there in 1773.

The obligatory ice carving

Carved beets and turnips

Lunch today was interesting because you got to choose ingredients for an oriental soup. Tons of veggies, rice noodles, what they called dim sum but I would call potstickers, and little stuffed wonton shaped like the hors d'ouevers from Surani's wedding, then you picked miso or chicken broth, and they quickly cooked your veggies, then you could add green or red chili sauce, soy sauce and scallions. Quite good actually, and since they had an ice sculpture there, and I promised Rob a picture of an ice sculpture, here it is.

 Continuing south down the coast, we have run into 30 knot winds, luckily blowing from the north, so it is helping push us along. However the decks are closed and the ship is so up-and-down I did not go to dinner. Ginger ale and a banana did it for me!