Dusky, Doubtful and Milford Sounds

Had to get up early again this morning because we are doing the three Sounds today – Dusky, Doubtful and Milford.  We were up on deck at about 7am and realised we were running a bit late due to the heavy seas during the night.  Slipped in and had breakfast then out again on to the open deck at the front of the ship at about 8am.  It was freezing, the wind was blowing a gale, which was not bad because it blew any of the clouds away and bad because it cut through our clothes like a knife through butter.  We were shivering and the crew started selling hot chocolate laced with Irish Whiskey, Baileys Irish Cream and other delicious breakfast alcoholic breverages.  Certainly warmed us up for about a minute as we entered Dusky Sound.  It truly is quite an amazing feeling, being on the top deck of a 12 storey ship and see the mountains dwarfing you as this huge ship slips so easily through the sound, around then out again through another sound.  Pam and I had trouble moving we were so cold, the sun didn’t have any effect and the wind was straight off the Southern Ocean.

We returned to our cabin as the ship sailed out into the Tasman/Pacific/Southern whatever and instead of having a shower, decided to go to the gym and have a walk on the walking machines to warm up.

Sounds like a good idea.  Someone got on the walking machine…his wife got on the one beside him.  Some of the machines are in kilometres per hour and some are in miles per hour and they can be set to your required speed.  We’d done it before…easy.  Someone didn’t read the display and pressed ‘6’ when the speed came up, then pressed ‘start’.  It started off slowly as expected, after about 10 seconds it became apparent this was in the mph and not kph machine, instead of a brisk walk at 6kph, it turned into a run at 6mph (or as someones wife pointed out later was really 10kph).  It became apparent when someone had to start running to prevent being spat out the back of the machine.  As his feet started feeling the belt curving down at the back and knowing the damage a sudden stop would achieve attempted to increase speed to get closer to the controls to slow the bloody thing down.  Having someones wife laughing hysterically and yelling….’Press the stop button!!’  was no help.  Principally because one couldn’t reach the stop button because it was about a foot out of reach and moving away at pace.  It is at this stage, when death is staring one in the face when ones frozen brain (the logic area anyway) loses some logical thought knowing death is rushing at you at 10kph and not at 6kph.  As someone saw their life rushing before their eyes a window of clarity opened up and to get to the controls one has to run at 15kph and start gaining distance away from the edge of the treadmill.  This enables one to finally resume control and slow the machine to a suitable and comfortable pace.  All this time someones wife was losing weight fast by waving her arms around and laughing uncontrollably with no thought to the consequences of her entertainment.  At least now we had both warmed up sufficiently to have a shower and look for a coffee.  Pam says these adventures happen so there’d be something to write in the blog….I really don’t need to die for the blog!!

Next into Doubtful Sound at about 11am.  So many jokes available and I’ll not use any…it’s doubtful you’d get them anyway!!

Again we sailed into the sound and watched as the ship came so close to the edge of the cliffs.  Amazing this mountains are hundreds and hundreds of metres high and the water is over 500 metres deep and the sound less than 500 metres wide.  Glorious weather too which highlights the contrast between water and mountain.  Of course photos are a poor substitute for seeing the real thing and hopefully the photos will just remind us of how majestic these sounds have been.

Left Doubtful Sound and cruised along the coast to Milford Sound and arrived about 3pm.  The coastline is so rugged, all mountains and rocks with some snow on the mountains right near to the waters edge.  Lucky for us the seas are smooth, the sun is out and the wind has dropped.
Milford Sound is all they have raved about and more.  Sailing in through the narrow passage, being high up on the ship and looking at waterfalls, vertical cliffs and deep blue water explodes the senses.  The Captain swung the ship around and went in close to one of the waterfalls, could almost reach out and touch it.  The ship was across the channel, goodness knows how it could fit.  Just watching the helicopters and planes fly along the passage between the huge cliffs gets your heart in your mouth.
Unfortunately I haven't got the words to describe the scene and of course the photos are a poor substitute for looking at it in person.
We left the Sound and said good-bye to New Zealand, it has given us a real taste of the country and we have no doubt we'll be back to do it properly next time.
As you could expect we took a thousand photos and I can't even begin to sort them out tonight.    We now have two days at sea, if I get time I'll get some loaded up to also give you a taste of one of New Zealands premier attractions!!!