Day 9: The Fjords

For two days after Hobart, we were at sea, heading to New Zealand. On the third day of this, New Year's Eve, we took a little detour through three of New Zeland's Fjords: Millford Sound, Dusky Sound, and Doubtful Sound. We couldn't get off the ship, but it was not like a normal sea day because there was so much to see from the ship.
Here's my completely non-scientific explanation of what is so special about a fjord. Fjords are basically pieces of coastline that were cut to bits by glaciers a gazillion years ago. The ones in New Zealand also happen to be extremely unique ecosystems. The water in the fjords of New Zealand is crazy deep, despite how narrow they are. By crazy deep I mean that scientist come here to study ocean life that they can't get to anywhere else in the world because the water has to be so deep for it to survive. The water at the bottom of the fjord also has no current because of the depth. There's a layer at the top that moves, and below that it's stagnant. To make things more interesting, it rains 200 days a year in this area of New Zealand, and as a result the top top layer of water is freshwater. The land is basically rainforest, and the fjords are home to all kinds of weird animals that you can't see anywhere else because they have evolved on the New Zealand islands and never had anyplace else to go.
All of this was very interesting to read about the night before we arrived at the sounds, but at 6:00 a.m., when the alarm went off, I had serious doubts about whether it was worth getting out of bed. Then I saw this:



Milford Sound (6:00-8:00) was the most dramatic of the three we passed through, and an extremely stressful experience for Zack, as somone who knows how driving a ship works. The waterway was not that much wider than the ship comparatively speaking. He spent a good bit of the trip saying "We should not be taking this big ship in here. This is a bad idea." Then, just when he had gotten used to the idea, we got to the dead end show here, and actually turned around in that tiny little waterway! The water in Milford Sound was black black black, but not murky. It was the clearest black I have ever seen. And the view was totally fantastic.


Anyway, it was totally worth getting up. Once we were through, there was a mad rush for breakfast and then things slowed down again for awhile. We went back to bed. Then at lunchtime, we were given a tour of Dusky Sound.

Dusky Sound was named by Captain Cook (although he might not have been a captain at that point) for the weather he encountered there. Luckily, we arrived on one of the 100 days that it doesn't rain, and we got some great pictures as a result.

We left Dusky Sound without having to turn around, and by 3:00 we were at Doubtful Sound, named because the good Captain Cook wasn't sure he'd find a place there to pull in and pick up supplies. Personally, I think Cook could have used a lesson in creativity, but I suppose when you've discovered the coast of a whole new continent, you start running out of names...

At any rate, we enjoyed the views, and by 5:00 we were back into the open sea, which gave us plenty of time to get ready for our formal New Year's dinner.

After dinner, we spent our evening in the Grand Foyer listening to live big band music and watching the small group of dancers (most under the age of six) until midnight rolled around. We have now officially celebrated New Years in the first time zone to roll over!

Happy New Year!