5th February - Milford Sound, New Zealand

It was around 5:00 am when I awoke to continual banging, it took a while but I realised what I could here was the shower door banging against the toilet bowl, and the drawers in the wardrobe opening and closing.  The ship was also rolling back and forth.  I got up and struggled to the bathroom, everything was creaking and there were the strangest noises.  I went back to bed and somehow dozed until day light appeared and we lay in bed watching the horizon rise and fall!

The captain had promised five metre waves and he delivered on that promise.  We we smacking into waves and then rolling as we crested over them.  The ship had stabilizers out, so I hate to think what it would be like without them.

We had headed south from Port Chalmers and then sailed between the southern tip of New Zealand and Seward Island, as we headed west from there we had sailed into the high winds and rough seas.  Never to be one to shy away from a sea watching opportunity I spent some time looking out of the window and was rewarded with a record shot of a Mottled Petrel passing us.  The shot was through a rain splattered window, so not the best, but shows the dark diagnostic belly.

There were also the speckled black and white Cape Petrels but I couldn't get a clear shot of them.  We made our way to breakfast, bouncing off the walls of the corridors as the ship rolled.  Sitting down to breakfast the salt and pepper were upright, but very soon they were sent flying across the floor.  There was then an almighty crash as the crockery in the buffet area was thrown to the floor, quickly followed by glasses.  The final act was sending an elderly lady from her chair to the floor.  It was like a war zone.

We made it through breakfast and headed up to the panorama lounge at the stern of the ship.  Watching from the rear provides more opportunity to follow the birds as they either passed or crossed behind us.  I found a relatively sheltered spot where I could use the wall to steady myself and settled in to watch.

First to show well were Sooty Shearwaters.  They have the typical "shearing" flight of the shearwaters, dipping from side to side on stiff wings with few wing beats, the wingtips almost touching the water. Its flight is powerful and direct, with wings held stiff and straight, giving the impression of a very small albatross. This shearwater is identifiable by its dark plumage, which is responsible for its name. In poor viewing conditions, it looks all black, but in good light, it shows as dark chocolate-brown with a silvery strip along the centre of the underwing.

But quickly the Shy Albatross appeared, here flying with the Sooty Shearwaters.

Following the ship.

On other cruises I have taken the birds rarely show as well as the Albatross were doing today coming close alongside the ship.

The grey under the eyes and around the ear patches clear, leaving the all white head, that gives it the New Zealand name of White-capped Albatross.

One Albatross is wonderful, but here I had three all together.

Sooty Shearwater.

Then a Southern Royal Albatross, there is debate which is the largest, the Southern Royal or Wandering, there is so much cross over it is probably fair to say they are about the same size, incredible wing span.

The seas were easing slightly, but still throwing the ship about as we were now heading north towards Milford Sound.  At about 11:00am the birds started to dry up, only sporadic sightings of Sooty Shearwaters passing by.

We were advised that the weather was going to allow us to visit Milford Sound, but that we would be there about an hour later than planned at about 18:00.  So it was time for lunch and then some reading during the afternoon as we rocked and rolled our way north.

At just before 18:00 the engines eased and we could finally see land through the murk, the water taking on a glacial blue green.  Mist hung over the tops of the mountains and we could just make out where the entrance to the sound would be.

The stabilizers were retracted and with a pilot on board, we started a very slow approach to the sound.  This took us through a huge raft of Sooty Shearwaters on the sea.

Sooty shearwaters breed on small islands in the south Pacific and south Atlantic Oceans, mainly around New Zealand, the Falkland Islands, Tierra del Fuego, and in the Auckland Islands and Phillip Island off Norfolk Island. They start breeding in October.

They are spectacular long-distance migrants, following a circular route, traveling north up the western side of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans at the end of the nesting season in March–May, reaching subarctic waters in June–July, where they cross from west to east, then return south down the eastern side of the oceans in September–October, reaching to the breeding colonies in November. They do not migrate as a flock, but rather as individuals,

Once the shearwaters were out of the we started the approach to Milford Sound.  Māori people living in the South Island discovered Milford Sound more than 1,000 years ago. In Māori legend, Milford Sound was formed by Tu-te-raki-whanoa. He was an atua (godly figure) who was in charge of shaping the Fiordland coast. Chanting a powerful karakia (prayer), he hacked at the towering rock walls with his toki (adze) called Te Hamo and carved it from the earth.

The Māori name for Milford Sound, Piopiotahi, means “a single piopio”. When the legendary hero Maui died trying to win immortality for his beloved people, a piopio (a long-extinct native bird) was said to have flown here in mourning.

Early European settlers did not explore Milford Sound by boat, not realising that inside its narrow entrance there was such a beautiful region to explore. In fact, it is so well hidden that the famous explorer Captain Cook managed to miss the entrance to the fiord twice!

In 1823 a sealer called John Grono was the first European settler to visit. He named it Milford Sound after Milford Haven, a long narrow inlet on the Welsh coast.

The first waterfalls could be seen as we edged ever closer to the narrow entrance.

The clouds hanging over the mountain tops added to the impressive scenery.

At last we could see into the sound.  The rocks that make up Milford Sound and the surrounding Fiordland region were once part of a huge mountain range on the mega-continent of Gondwanaland, over 600 million years ago. Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, they were reshaped by erosion and the movement of tectonic plates deep under the earth.

Milford Sound is actually a fiord, not a sound. Sounds are formed when a river valley is flooded by the sea, whereas Milford Sound was formed by the erosion of ancient glaciers.

Within the last two million years, there were around a dozen major glacial phases in the South Island. Rivers of ice up to two kilometres wide descended from the Southern Alps and flowed slowly but surely down to the sea, carving their course out of the solid rock as they went. Later, as the earth warmed, the glaciers retreated and the ice rivers melted. In some places the trenches and valleys they left became lakes, including lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. In Milford Sound they created a fiord: a sheer, narrow valley opening out to the sea, with high cliffs on either side.

You can see the passage of the glaciers over time in the shape and height of the cliffs that rise out of the sea. As years went by and the glaciers melted the thickness of the ice changed, resulting in the ridged walls and U-shaped glacial valleys you can see today.

Many of the high peaks of the surrounding mountains were covered by cloud, but the other natural feature of the Sound are the waterfalls.  Gushing down from the surrounding rainforest into Milford Sound are myriads of cascading waterfalls, some reaching a thousand metres in length. Many of these fluctuate depending on rainfall. There are two main permanent waterfalls in Milford Sound: Lady Bowen Falls (162m high) and Stirling Falls. Only three have names, the two already mentioned and the Bridal Veil Falls at the entrance on our right as we entered.

With all the rain over the last day the waterfalls were at their best, and showed up as lacy veils falling across the rocks and into the sea.

A classic "U" shaped valley created by a glacier and now the river cascading into the sea, the Stirling Falls

The length of Milford Sound is approximately 16km (9.94 miles) from the head of the fiord to the open sea.  At 265 metres deep, most of the sound's water is salty, but the top 10 metres or so is freshwater. It comes from the seven to nine metres of rainfall that the area gets every year, empty into the sound via its many rivers and waterfalls.  As rainwater runs through the forest into the fiord it becomes stained with tannins, making the surface layer a darker colour.

Little Penguins, New Zealand Fur Seals and Bottlenose Dolphins all call Milford Sound home.  We were fortunate to come across a small group of Bottlenose Dolphins.

A closer view of Stirling Falls.

The white flows of water against the black rock was everywhere.

Harrison Valley.

Lady Bowen Falls is at the top of the sound close to the township pf Milford Sound, a small Hydro Electric plant on the falls provides power for the township.

A black and white image adds to the dramatic scenery of mountain and brooding clouds.

Looking up Sinbad Gully.

A closer view of Lady Bowen Falls.  The river and waterfalls were named for Diamantina Bowen (Lady Bowen), the wife of the fifth governor of New Zealand, George Bowen. The governor visited Milford Sound aboard HMS Clio in 1871 and Bowen Falls was named to mark the occasion.

Some more of the many cascades making their way over the rock and vegetation.

We stayed at the head of the Sound for a short while, the ship turning around so everyone was able to appreciate the scenery from their cabins on both sides of the ship.

Another set of black and white images.

Another of the many waterfalls.

The wind catching the falling water and seemingly sending the water and spray back where it came from.

Milford Sound or Piopiotahi as the Maori call it is a very spiritual place for the Maori and it is easy to understand why.  Such incredible scenery had to be created by something and their culture has many stories that explain this.  I wish some of these explanations could be true, because they are no different to what the scientists tell us.  I find it hard to comprehend the time it has taken to produce this even though I understand how and why.

We slowly made our way out of Milford Sound and away from New Zealand.  Next was Hobart in Tasmania Australia, but before then we had two days at sea crossing the Tasman Sea.  I just hope the weather and sea is kinder to us.