Feb 14, Day 40 Fiordland Nat'l Park, NZ

Amsterdam track from top of chart to left

Last night was a slow and quiet run west then North along the SW side of the South Island. Shortly before 0800 we turned to starboard and headed for the shoreline. This was the entrance to Fiordland National Park.

The park covers 4,600 square miles, part of the Te Wahiponamu UNESCO World Heritage site. It is famous for its mountains, gorges, lakes, forests, waterfalls and fiords. The Humboldt, Livingstone and Takitimu mountain ranges border the park on the East and on the West lies the Tasman Sea.

A small opening in the steep and abrupt bluffs turned to be the entrance to Dusky Bay where we slowly entered and cruised under the ramparts of rock and lush forest; trees and bushes growing almost parallel to the steep face. We circled Resolution Island and left the bay through another opening and re-entered the Tasman Sea. At about 0900. Dusky Sound is 28 ½ miles long and is 5 miles wide at its widest point. Captain Cook discovered the entrance to this sound on February 13, 1770, 241 years before our visit.

We continue North along the coast until 1045 when we turned to starboard and passed the narrow slot into Doubtful Sound. The water within the sound is in two distinct layers that do not mix. The top layer is a few yards deep and consists of fresh water from the streams off the high mountains surrounding the fiord. The lower layer is salt water, cold and heavy. By noon we left this waterway and returned to sea.

Farther up the coast as we entered Milford Sound, the sun came out. Milford Sound, Piopiotahi in Maori, is about 2 miles wide and extends 12 miles. More accurately, this is a fiord. The rock faces rise some 3,960' and more. From the highest peaks of Mitre Peak (5,560' or 1,695m) and Pembroke Peak (6,710'), the Elephant (4,977', 1517m) and Lion Mountain (4,271' or 1302m), the walls plunge steeply below the water, as deep as 1,680' (512m) near the head of the sound and has a mean depth of 600'. This is the wettest place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world with rain some 185 days a year totaling over 20' annually. Rain can reach 250mm a day. The water runs down the rock faces creating magnificent waterfalls, some a thousand meters in length.

At 1730 we were out of the fiord and took a course NW into the Tasman Sea. Conditions are quiet for this stormy part of the world and we are hoping for a quick passage the next couple days.

This is Valentine's Day which will be celebrated aboard as a Formal night. The lounges and dining room have been decorated in red and there will be a ball in the largest lounge tonight. We have received an invitation to a cocktail party in a deck suite before dinner and will be dining afterward with three other couples, one new set of friends and two couples we had become friends with on the Grand Asia Pacific Voyage. Ahead of us are two days at sea.

Chart of South Island NZ. Our track from bottom, clockwise