March 19, 2018 cruising the Fiordland National Park

March 19, 2018 cruising the Fiordland National Park

Weather today is going to be cool and windy and possibility of 4ft waves.

Not much going on in the morning so we decided to do one load of wash. The cost was $3.00 to dry.

Afterwards we went to lunch and then went to a lecture by a retired Park ranger on the Fiordland National Park. He showed a lot of nice slides of the landscape and the wild birds that our found in the Park.

https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/fiordland/places/fiordland-national-park/


The weather is cold and drizzling and we hoped the weather would clear so the ship could cruise the Park.


At 2:15 the ship entered Milford Sound and for one hour the ship sailed in and around the sound exiting at 3:15. The sky cleared so we could see the mountains and lots of waterfalls on the mountain side.

The water was calm so we had smooth sailing.

Once we got out on the open water the winds picked up so much that the doors leading to outside were blocked off, it started raging and the seas became choppy.

After dinner we went to the Nikki Bennet show in the theater. She is a well known cabaret singer in Australia.

Tonight we turn the clocks back one hour.

March 18, 2018 Port Chambers- gateway to Dunedin New Zealand

Weather  forecast sunny and 65 degrees F.

Two things to see in Dunedin are the Speights brewery and the Cadbury factory- both offering tours and discounts on candy at the Cadbury store.

We signed up for the train trip to Taieri Gorge on the Taieri Gorge Railway.

https://www.dunedinrailways.co.nz/our-journeys/taieri-gorge-railway

We woke up at 5:30am, had breakfast at 6 am and went to the meeting point at the appointed time of 7:10 am. We were not called to go to our tour until 7:50 am.

One of the great things about this train is that it is operated by volunteers and that the train was right in front of the ship waiting for us to board.

Each car had a volunteer who was in charge of serving us drinks and snacks and our lunch.

Kaye was our hostess and she was great.

She started serving wine at 8:30 am, coffee and cookies, then cheese and crackers.

The scenery was beautiful- we went to the open air observation car to take photos. 

We reached the end of the line and got of for 45 mins to stretch our legs and take photos of the scenery.

12:45 the whistle blew and we boarded the train for the return to Port Chambers. 

Once the train started Kaye came around with box lunches- small piece of quiche, sandwich roll, potato salad, grapes and a small piece of cake. 

She then came around with more wine and cold beer. I had two bottles of the local lager, speights.

At 1:45 we arrived at the Dunedin train station where we had a 15 min. layover. I got off to take photos of the front of the station, the interior and of the train.

Both the interior and exterior of the Dunedin train station were beautiful.

I got back on the train and it took us to the ship.

We went to the terminal building where I used the WiFi to make a call home to check messages, buy a few souvenirs to use up our NZ $.

We went to our cabin to take a nap before dinner.

Tonight’s menu was unappealing so I had the Aussie burger which was great- burger, bacon, beets and an egg.

Tonight’s theater show always good but only 30 mins.

The captain announced that the weather forecast cast tonight is going to be very windy-55 miles per hour and 4 foot waves.

Tomorrow we have scenic cruising of the fjords.

March 17, 2018 Akaroa

Today the weather is supposed to be 67 degrees F and cloudy. A lot like yesterday.

Akaroa is a tender port. After breakfast we went to the Savoy dining room to get our tender tickets. Within 10 mins we were called and went down to board the tender. It was a 20min ride and the sea was very calm.

Our first visit was scheduled for a visit to a farm to have morning tea and watch a sheepdog demo and sheep shearing.

On the way the driver stopped at the top of a hill to take photos of the view, sheep and cattle.  The driver then drove down to a small town, Little River, where we stopped to stretch and use the rest room.

Nest stop was the stop at a Canterbury farm, Manderlay farm.

https://www.manderley.co.nz

We went into the owner’s home to have our tea, coffee and sausage roll and cookie. Then we went to the paddock to hear about sheepdogs and then watch the dog herd a herd of sheep down the hill into the paddock. The dog responds to both voice and whistle commands.

Here is a really good Youtube video of the tour experience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhqS1dB-Z84

Then the owner, Ross, got a lamb and demonstrated how to shear a sheep.

When it was done we walked around the farm.

Next stop was the Akaroa Giant House.

http://www.thegiantshouse.co.nz

The Giant House was bought by an artist 18 years ago and she created a lot of ceramic mosaic  figures larger than life size and arrayed them all around her tiered garden.

She also redid the interior of the Home and displayed all her paintings and figurines throughout the house.

Our tour was over and the driver left us off by the pier. We went to the Akaroa fish house for fish and chips.  The food was good but I thought it was expensive - $32.50 NZ. Catsup cost $.60 a packet.

We spent a little time walking around before we got in the tender line to return to the ship.

Tomorrow is our last port.