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We woke up this morning to see two amazing things out our window – first, it was sunny! And second, we were traversing the Fiordland National Park which means we will cruise through lots of beautiful fjords in southwestern New Zealand.
Today is Valentine’s Day and I surprised Dale by decorating our room with some hearts and other decorations. We have a sea day today and are planning on taking it easy and resting up for a big dinner in Prime 7 this evening. The good news is that the seas are calm inside the fjords. We continue to keep our fingers crossed that the Tasman Sea crossing won’t be too bad.
For the complete Sounds Picture Gallery click here.
Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity. The good news for us is that fjords tend to be very deep and the channels narrow, so it makes for dramatic cruising!
We’ve now been on this ship for 9 days and we thought it a good time to catch you up on our goings-on aboard the Voyager.
We have been having a great time enjoying Pink Flowers most evenings with Nick and Sherrie. We’ve had a few dinners with them and have also tried “sharing” tables at both of the specialty restaurants and met some new, interesting people.
Our stewardess, Riana, and our butler, Trevor, have been doing an excellent job keeping our suite clean and our mini fridge stocked with all of our favorites. It’s easy to feel spoiled by their attention…it’s not so bad!
Most mornings Dale is up before me and takes his computer down to the Coffee Connection or to the La Veranda restaurant and has a quick bite. Then he is off to a fitness class of some type and after brings a soy latte to me. We have unlimited free Internet access on the ship, so we are online regularly checking email, stocks, world news, etc. Then we go to breakfast and/or have Trevor deliver breakfast to our room.
Mid-day we typically go for a walk around the lap track (if the weather is OK) and have lunch either in Compass Rose or up at La Veranda. They do a special lunch on sea days at the pool café that is good. After we might drop in on a lecture, read a book or, if we had wine with lunch (which we do from time to time) we might take a catnap before working some more on our computers. Of course, if we are in port, we are off the ship doing whatever excursion we have planned.
Around 5:00 pm Trevor delivers a bite of something or another and we shower and dress and then we are off to start all over again with a Pink Flower!
It’s not a bad routine and we’ve gotten used to it. While we miss our friends, family, home and pets, we are adjusting well to the cruising lifestyle. We have two more months to go and a lot more to see and experience!
Photography Comments:
Started out as a beautiful day as we entered Dusky Sound. It was gorgeous blue water, clear views of the steep granite mountains on both sides and I got some decent shots with both the D7000 and D700. Next was Doubtful Sound which was still decent lighting but it was getting towards mid-day when the lighting gets sort of harsh. I experimented with the polarizing filter and it did a decent job. Next came Milford Sound. We had to wait for the Dawn Princess and Albatross to leave because they only allow two large ships in the sound at once. They both left together. There was quite a crowd on the top deck, maybe 3-4 deep in places, so they opened up the forward section of the Deck 5 viewing area. It was a bit hazy as we started our exit but I got some nice shots of the biggest waterfall we saw all day. Normally, there are more huge waterfalls but it hadn’t rained in a while. Later in the day the clouds started obscuring the mountain tops and it was quite hazy as we exited. But, nothing that Pink Flowers couldn’t cure along with a nice dinner with the two of us at Prime 7 Steakhouse.
Trip Summary » Travel with Dale & Margaret - […] Cruising Doubtful Sound, International Waters […]