A short trip to New Zealand (part 1)

My first trip south of the equator began in Sydney on a cruise ship. After 3 days at sea, I was eager to see some land. What I saw on Day 4 of the trip at Milford Sound took my breath away. It began at 0500h local time when the ship entered the fjord (even though it was called a sound).

This photo above was taken from the ship’s port side deck 5. The sun had risen but the mountains cast a shadow.

As the ship continued down, we passed dozens of high waterfalls from the rain in the mountains.

Once the ship reached the end of the sound, we reached the sleepy village of Milford. Around this time, I had climbed from Deck 5 to Deck 13, the highest point and with the best vantage point. I had a nice 360 degree view. What’s more the sun had risen higher.

This was extremely breath taking and I was speechless for most of it. Everyone else was too because there was not a lot of conversation between the people taking pictures and just enjoying the landscape. It was very cold (around 43 F) so as I took pictures, I sipped from a cup of coffee. The cold was a small price to pay.

Eventually, the ship headed back to open waters again. This was the last great shot.

Having gotten up at 0430h, I was ready for a morning nap. When the ship later entered Duskie Sound and Doubtful Sound, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and the skies were gray again with rain. We were blessed to get the best views and weather. Definitely going back!