Navigating through Fiordland National Park

February 21 was billed as Scenic Cruising of Fiordland National Park on New Zealand's South Island. That meant we would not be debarking the ship but watching the scenery from Decks 9 or 10 and our balcony. While this may sound rather lame, we learned that most visitors to this park see it by boat.

The weather was billed as overcast with showers and intermittent periods of sunshine. While this also may not seem to be optimum, we quickly learned from our fellow passengers that this was the best possible weather for viewing the fiords. If the area has not received enough rainfall, we would have seen no waterfalls. If the day was constant rains and clouds, we could not see the mountain peaks. We were fortunate to experience the lush greenery, crystal-clear waters and snow-capped peaks in all their breathtaking beauty in between raindrops.

We entered the park at Milford Sound at about 8 a.m. with on-deck commentary from Debbie, our port destination lecturer, commentating from the Bridge. At 9 a.m., we enjoyed a Fiordland Champagne Celebration while huddling under any coverings on the open decks to escape the raindrops. At about 1 p.m., we entered Thompson Sound, which we exited at about 2:15 p.m., and then entered Dusky Sound at 3:30 p.m. for about an hour before heading out to the Tasman Sea for our trip to Tasmania.

Fiordland National Park, the biggest of the 14 national parks of New Zealand, is everything its publicity teams bills it to be. We will let Ken's photographs attest to this fact.