We spent the last two days going in and out of the fiords here in NZ. The scenery is spectacular. We were so fortunate to have sunny skies during these two days. There are fourteen beautiful fiords on the west coast formed when the glaciers gouged and deepened and rounded the U - shaped valleys forming lakes and fiords.
Fiordland is the largest national park in New Zealand and one of the largest in the world. It has been recognized as one of the world's foremost natural landscapes through its inclusion in South West New Zealand World Heritage Area. Dusky Sound, Breaksea Sound, Doubtful Sound, Thompson Sound, and the Milford Sound are the ones visited by our ship in the last two days.
Milford Sound is the most spectacular one. We got up early to see the ship entering it's mouth and going inland. We met another huge ship at the end of the Sound and if you looked at this huge ship, you would see a small one instead. The mountains that were the back drop for the ship are gigantic making it look like a toy.
Our captain took the Crystal Serenity right up to within 5 to 6 feet from the Crystal falls. There were crew and passengers all over the outside decks running and grabbing their cameras in order to take great shots of the falls.
In the distance, we saw a helicopter taking photos of our ship for a brochure.
We are now in the Tasman Sea heading for Sydney Australia. So far it is a calm sea but the crew has warned us it can be very bad.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Dunedin, New Zealand
We opened our balcony curtains to rain and cloud and fog. Last night the ship kept blowing the fog horn. Many people couldn't sleep through it but I did. We were still looking forward to our full day tour even though it was raining outside.
We headed for Dunedin, a Scottish city of 120,000 people. This charming city lies less than ten miles from our pier in Port Chalmers. Dunedin means Edinburgh in Gaelic and so to this day it has many reminders of its Scottish roots. (Just left the computer to look overboard where there is a school of bottle-nosed dolphins playing along side our ship) The streets of Dunedin are full of Victorian and Edwardian buildings.
We drove through the city of Dunedin, to the famous Dunedin Railway Station. It is a fine example of Edwardian architecture. We dashed inside to take some photos.
We proceeded along the coastline of Otago Harbor, to the Otago Peninsula where we saw sheep and cattle grazing. We arrived at Nature's Wonders, a farm located at the edge of the peninsula. This is a private farm but the wildlife on this farm is protected by the government. We put on raincoats and crawled in the Canadian made argos for a ride around the farm. Most of the roads were drenched with rain and the mud puddles splashed onto us.
We first of all came upon a fur seal colony. There were many female seals nursing their young born baby seals. One baby seal left the colony and was on our path. He looked so cute and lost. We could not go down this path because we did not want to scare the baby seal off. We watched and took many photos of the fur seal colony laying around on the rocks, babies playing among the huge seaweed and the males preening themselves up high on the rocks. It was a wonderful sight.
We then got back into our argos and proceeded to see the world's rarest penguins, the yellow-eyed and the little blue penguins. We sighted the little blue penguin hiding in his den in the side of the road. Then we came upon the very secluded bay where the yellow-eyed penguins live. They are so shy that many times a tour group has come to see them and they are not around. Fortunately, we saw five of them. They were far far away from the sheltered pathway where we could hide from them and still take photos and observe them with our binoculars. The yellow-eyed penguins are approximately 34 inches tall but far away look so much smaller. A couple of these penguins were waddling ashore from the sea.
We then proceeded to the Royal Albatross centre further down the road. We watched the fascinating Northern Royal Albatross flying above us. Many were nesting on their eggs and young. These Albatross have decided to make their home here and this is the world's only mainland breeding colony. We watched some of the females feeding their young on closed circuit TV. We were hidden in a building and watched the Albatross flying and circling above our heads. The recorded life spans exceed 60 years, and they fly at speeds of over 100kph. The young Albatross stay at sea continuously for up to five years prior to reaching mating maturity and then fly to this sight to nest and lay their eggs. Their numbers were small but with research and conservation management, their numbers have increased. We were lucky that it was a windy day, for they love it when the winds are high. The Albatross produced a wonderful show for us with their wing spans of 3 metres from wing tip to wing tip.
We then headed to the Marine Studies Centre, where we were given a tour of the local marine life. We viewed many aquariums and saw the large holding areas holding local fish life which will be used for further study. We also had a simulation of the underwater explorations done off the coast of Dunedin. It was interesting to see all the rare sea life that is dredged up from the ocean floor.
We headed for Dunedin, a Scottish city of 120,000 people. This charming city lies less than ten miles from our pier in Port Chalmers. Dunedin means Edinburgh in Gaelic and so to this day it has many reminders of its Scottish roots. (Just left the computer to look overboard where there is a school of bottle-nosed dolphins playing along side our ship) The streets of Dunedin are full of Victorian and Edwardian buildings.
We drove through the city of Dunedin, to the famous Dunedin Railway Station. It is a fine example of Edwardian architecture. We dashed inside to take some photos.
We proceeded along the coastline of Otago Harbor, to the Otago Peninsula where we saw sheep and cattle grazing. We arrived at Nature's Wonders, a farm located at the edge of the peninsula. This is a private farm but the wildlife on this farm is protected by the government. We put on raincoats and crawled in the Canadian made argos for a ride around the farm. Most of the roads were drenched with rain and the mud puddles splashed onto us.
We first of all came upon a fur seal colony. There were many female seals nursing their young born baby seals. One baby seal left the colony and was on our path. He looked so cute and lost. We could not go down this path because we did not want to scare the baby seal off. We watched and took many photos of the fur seal colony laying around on the rocks, babies playing among the huge seaweed and the males preening themselves up high on the rocks. It was a wonderful sight.
We then got back into our argos and proceeded to see the world's rarest penguins, the yellow-eyed and the little blue penguins. We sighted the little blue penguin hiding in his den in the side of the road. Then we came upon the very secluded bay where the yellow-eyed penguins live. They are so shy that many times a tour group has come to see them and they are not around. Fortunately, we saw five of them. They were far far away from the sheltered pathway where we could hide from them and still take photos and observe them with our binoculars. The yellow-eyed penguins are approximately 34 inches tall but far away look so much smaller. A couple of these penguins were waddling ashore from the sea.
We then proceeded to the Royal Albatross centre further down the road. We watched the fascinating Northern Royal Albatross flying above us. Many were nesting on their eggs and young. These Albatross have decided to make their home here and this is the world's only mainland breeding colony. We watched some of the females feeding their young on closed circuit TV. We were hidden in a building and watched the Albatross flying and circling above our heads. The recorded life spans exceed 60 years, and they fly at speeds of over 100kph. The young Albatross stay at sea continuously for up to five years prior to reaching mating maturity and then fly to this sight to nest and lay their eggs. Their numbers were small but with research and conservation management, their numbers have increased. We were lucky that it was a windy day, for they love it when the winds are high. The Albatross produced a wonderful show for us with their wing spans of 3 metres from wing tip to wing tip.
We then headed to the Marine Studies Centre, where we were given a tour of the local marine life. We viewed many aquariums and saw the large holding areas holding local fish life which will be used for further study. We also had a simulation of the underwater explorations done off the coast of Dunedin. It was interesting to see all the rare sea life that is dredged up from the ocean floor.
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