This
was not a Sea Day, but we were not in a port. We were in New Zealand coastal water. New
Zealand was discovered by Abel Tasman who was attached by local Maori when he
landed and did not stay. However, Captain
James Cook ventured in these waters in 1770 and again in 1773 and in 1791 claimed
the land for his English King and spent five weeks mapping the southwestern
coast, now Fiordland National Park. His
descriptions intrigued English and Scottish whalers with his mention of the
number of whales and seals in the area.
A few years later, in 1793, a Spanish explorer, Captain Malaspina,on a
five year around the world voyage, also visited the sounds and named some of
the bays, which retain some of their Spanish names in Doubtful Sound.
An hour before the sun rose at 7:34 a.m., the
ship was approaching one of the 14 New Zealand Sounds, which are protected
bodies of water, in Fiordland National Park on the New Zealand’s South Island. Included
with the daily Cruise Compass itinerary was a page of information about Fiordland
National Park with a map that charted the route the ship takes through the park,
which took our ship about eight hours. (Just a little shorter than transiting
the Panama Channel, which we will navigate in the late fall.) The ship waited
at the entrance to Milford Sound for the pilot boat to deliver the marine
pilots who will be guiding the ship along the coast and in the fjords. Later today the ship will be cruising in more
fjords, Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound. The
Maori names of the sounds are Piopiotahi, Patea and Tamatéa respectively. Also the ship will pass through Thompson
Sound and Breaksea Sound. About 150 people
left the ship via sightseeing boats on an overnight land excursion touring the
mountainous region, its valleys, some historic mining communities and Queenstown. They will be rejoining the ship tomorrow
evening in Dunedin.
We walked on Decks 5, 11, 12 and 13, doing
circuits and pausing to take photos as the ship glided through Milford Sound as
the sun rose. Fiordland expert, Hamish
Angus, joined the ship with the marine pilots and gave a commentary as the ship
headed to the end of the sound where the sightseeing boats awaited the
passengers leaving the ship. He also
gave a presentation in the theater in the morning and further commentary as the
ship traversed around Secretary Island via Thompson Sound and Doubtful Sound.
Then he narrated the passage around Resolution Island travelling in Breaksea
Sound and Dusky Sound later in the day.
There was a bit of cloud and some stars were visible before
daybreak. The temperature on my
thermometer was 58 F (or 14 C), but there was only a light breeze of about 15
km per hour. The sea was almost calm and
the waters of the sound hardly rippled as the marine pilots boarded the ship.
The entrance to Milford Sound is hidden
and was missed when Captain James Cook and his ships passed the area in 1773. Cook
spent five weeks exploring the coastline. Milford Sound was discovered in 1823
by a ship seeking shelter from a storm.
The Maori people legends tell that the demi-god, Tuterakiwhanoa, carved
the rugged fjord formations from nondescript rock. The region was used
seasonally for Maori camps to gather food for storage to use the rest of the
year. Near the mouth of Milford Sound or Piopiotahi in Maori, the translucent
greenstone or jade was sought by the Maori people. After Cook’s maps were published sealers and
whalers travelled to the South Island, which was rich in seals and whales, to
establish whaling stations. The annual rainfall is measured in meters. The Sounds receive between seven and nine
meters of rain annually.
People took advantage of the photo op
presented by the many waterfalls cascading down the sheer cliffs, fed by yesterday’s
rain and overnight rain. The height of the
mountains is almost duplicated in their depth to the sound floor. Clouds were clinging to the mountains at
daylight, but the sun gradually burned them off revealing spectacular
vistas. Some of the sights within
Milford Sound are Bowen Falls, Mitre Peak, Anita Bay plus Elephant Falls and
Stirling Falls. Hamish mentioned that he
has hiked the trail several times up Mitre Peak, the highest point in the
fiords, and has been able to hear commentary on a ship in the fiord. He also said that the mountain peaks can
receive up to ten meters of snow in the winter. The water in Milford Sound has
about two feet of fresh water floating on top of the sea water. The top 40
meters of water contains washed out vegetation tannins that restricts light to
the lower levels. This filtering of the
light allows black coral to grow close to the surface. Some colonies of the coral are over 300 years
old. The coral is like a white squatty tree and only turns black when it is
dead.
Later in the morning Hamish gave a
presentation, to an almost full Aurora theatre audience, about Fiordland
National Park and its marine reserves. The park covers 5% of New Zealand’s land
mass, about three million acres between the latitudes of 44 and 46 degrees south.
Fiordland National Park is a World Heritage Area since 1993. The reserve’s northern border is Martins Bay,
one of the few places where a sandy beach can be found. There are many species of New Zealand birds
in the park, but the bat is the only native mammal, as well as introduced
wapiti from Canada and red deer. Rats and Stoat mice and Norwegian mice
accidently arrived via sailing ships and an active trapping system is in place
to eliminate these predators within the park.
There are reptiles throughout New Zealand.
After some travel in the Tasman Sea, with its
two meter waves, the ship turned into Thompson Sound to skirt Secretary Island
and return to the Tasman Sea via Doubtful Sound, which is New Zealand’s second
largest fjord. There are a few species of coral along this coast. Doubtful
Sound received its name from Captain James Cook, who looked at the narrow
opening surrounded by rock outcrops and was doubtful that he could navigate his
sailing ship through the opening. Doubtful
Sound was the epicenter of an earthquake in 2003 which registered 7.2 on the Reichter
Scale. We exited Doubtful Sound passing its
many islands. Looking from the back of the
ship, its path showed that it made a wide swing before heading south toward
Breaksea Sound. As we observed the
opening, it was obvious why Captain Cook was doubtful that he could enter the
gap. Back into the Tasman Sea, the ship
was gently swaying in the 2.5 to 3 meter waves.
A short time later, the ship was
approaching Breaksea Sound, known as Te Puaitaha to the Maori, to enter a
passage around Resolution Island and exit through Dusky Sound. We spotted a few dolphins racing beside the
ship. Resolution Island was named after Cook’s ship, Resolution. The forest is
one of the last remnants of ancient forest from the great land mass of all the
continents, before New Zealand split from Austral-Asia. Here again are forested
steep cliffs with occasional thin cascades of water tumbling toward the water. The unspoiled beauty of this area is jaw
dropping. When Cook noted Dusky Sound in 1770, it was near dusk and he did not
enter and sailing to another bay. But on his next voyage in 1773, he found it
in mid afternoon and entered the mouth of the sound. He used the rock formation, “The Five
Fingers” near the entrance, as his landmark. His lieutenant dropped a longboat
and found a more sheltered cove, known now as Pickerskill Harbour. Here the ship anchored and the crew gathered
water and hunted and gathered for provisions to restock the food on the
ship. This was the location of the first
“beer” brewed in New Zealand. Cook’s
crew brewed a mixture from the evergreen trees that Cook called spruce. Then they added brown sugar and rum to the
concoction. Cook’s crew cleared an acre
of land, known as Astronomer’s Point, to test the ship’s new gadget, a sea
going clock for accuracy using older technology and found it very accurately
registered the correct location. Due to this new method of locating where he
was, his charts are accurate even using today’s satellite technology. Cook’s note in his journals of large numbers
of the seals basking on the tiny rock islands and whales was incentive later
for sealers and whalers to go to the area for its abundance of those creatures. In 1792 twelve men, from the sailing ship,
Britannia, were left close by to set up a sealers camp and catch seals for
their fur. It was a risk, since in those
days you did not know that your ship would survive to pick you up again. The men were lucky and captured 4,500 seal
and to increase their chances of survival had started to build a small ship.
They were about 75 % finished, but abandoned it when the Britannia returned ten
months later. This was fortunate for an
expedition to the area a few years later, when one of the crew had been on the
Britannia and remembered the partly built ship.
Two ships had sailed from Australia, but the larger one started to leak
and when they arrived at Dusky Sound it was irreparable and the other ship was
unable to take all the people from the larger ship. So they completed the other ship, christening
the ship Providence and it became the first New Zealand ship built form native
timber. The leaky ship had anything of value removed from it and was sunk,
becoming New Zealand’s first shipwreck. With these stories we exited Dusky
Sound and once more found ourselves in three meter swells and our captain
having to activate the stabilizers.
The day was a good one for seeing the
sounds, once the clouds lifted in Milford Sound. The temperature only warmed a
few degrees to 18 C, but the wind was strong at 30 km per hour.
There
was time to read before going to the Colony Club to try dancing while the ship
is moving from side to side. We managed to dance every melody in a 25 minute
period with a few extra back or side steps. The captain’s dinnertime
announcement advised that the three meter waves would continue until early
morning when the ship rounded the southern tip of South Island and it should be
calmer then.
We joined Maureen and Bob at our table and
ordered Southeast Asian Garden Salad and Beef & Tomato Soup as
appetizers. The main course order was
Chicken Schnizel with mashed potatoes, corn and broccoli. Dessert was berry flapjacks, that were
tasteless or maple pudding. During dinner we noticed the chalk cliffs the line
the southern coast of Fiordland National Park.
After
some reading we climbed up to Deck 11 as the ship rocked side to side. We were joined by Jim and Diane who we met on
the first day as we were ferried to the ship 27 days ago.
A quick visit to the Casino and it was time
to call it a night.
Steps
14,402 Flights
of stairs 61
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