Day 39 – Thursday, February 13, 2025 – Fiordland National Park

Our day started early. We had already entered Dusky Sound by time we got up. The landscapes were cool but nothing that dramatic. We took a lot of pictures. As we made our way back out to the ocean somewhere near Breaksea Sound. It was about 10:00, so we ran downstairs and got breakfast. Same old, same old. We came back up to the room. A little while later we entered Doubtful Sound. The sun was hidden by the clouds. The clouds were hanging low in the sky. It was very gray.

We then travelled a couple of hours before we entered Milford Sound. The sun started to peak out. What we saw cannot be put into words. You could take a million pictures and take 100 hours of video and you still would not get the true feeling of being there. The funny thing is we ran into two couples later separately and they both said the same thing. You were basically in a Canyon with this deepest cheeriest walls stone that went up for in some cases nearly a mile. The only thing I can think of would be like at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I've been to the top of the Grand Canyon, but never the bottom. I've included some pictures below that hopefully will give you a sense of what we saw. With that said, you still need to actually be there to get a sense of the grandeur and true feeling of the place.

Today, there were Park Rangers who were talking about this and that and they finally left around 5:30 or so. Mary listened to a lot of the discussions period it was obviously history based. James Cook sailed through these sounds back in the leaf 18th century. The Maori people have many traditions and legends around the landscape features. It was officially made a National Park in 1952. There are no trains or roads to get here. You can only come in by boat or airplane. This National Park is easily in the top three experiences of this world cruise so far.

Off to dinner we went around 6:00. I drank Sauvignon Blanc. I heard crispy vegetable rollups, I can't think of what they're really called. For my appetizer I had seafood stuffed trout. It was awesome. Trout has a very distinctive flavor which is very good. This is one of those meals I could eat forever. Mary had salad and chicken. Kind of the non uneventful dinner. The food was good

We intended to go to the Buddy Holly show, but by the time we got there, the opening band had just finished. It was at 7:30.  We stopped at a couple picture sites.  We ran into Karen and Laurie. They  pointed us to a web Facebook page for the cruise. We walked by the explorers lounge and watched silly game. The best part was I had a dramuie and worked on the crossword puzzle. I really did not even pay attention to the show. After the game, we headed upstairs. It had been a long day. A good day though.