Day 6 - Milford Sound

Approaching Milford Sound

After two days of sailing we arrived at the "Land of the Long White Cloud", and sailed towards Milford Sound. It was early morning and there was almost no colour in the sky or water.

It was quite eerie as the ship entered the sound in almost complete silence, no sounds of sea birds at all. It was almost reverent as people stood on the decks, hardly speaking and just awed by the scenery.

I must admit though that I felt a little uncomfortable looking at untouched nature ahead and diesel fumes emerging from the funnel behind us.

We took copious photographs, but they don't really capture the scale and grandeur of the scenery. Again, it was fantastic to be viewing from so high up rather that at sea level.

Overall you get the impression of a pretty inhospitable coastline, with even strong competition among the seals for a place to rest out of the water. There were some seals drying themselves on the rocks before the ship managed to turn around and head back out to sea.

We cruised to Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound. These sounds are much smaller than Milford Sound and to some extent less spectacular. However, the coastline did vary and there were even small beaches nestled between the cliffs.

Sailing into Dusky Sound.

Towards afternoon, we started sailing around the southern tip of New Zealand and the weather changed dramatically.

Instead of the calm waters and clear air off the west coast, the wind and seas picked up and visibility was much reduced because of the amount of sea spray in the air.