An ersatz sea-day today touring the glorious NZ scenery, watching the wonders of Dusky, Doubtful and Milford sounds from the comfort of our cabin balcony, which is my new fave way to do breakfast btw.
I took soooooo many photos that I no longer know which photo from what sound, so here's a small selection of photos and one story to explain the title of the post.
This photo is from Milford sound, the prettiest of the three we toured today. I can see why it is so well known around the world. The ship stopped here and we thought it was just for a photo op for this pretty waterfall. The smaller tour boats were pulling up right under the waterfall and we knew this monolithic ship could in no way compete with that up close a personal view but our captain had a spectacular trick up his sleeve.
he started turning the so we could get a little closer.
and then kept going so we were broadside across the sound for this specky view
and, as the wake implies, we kept going until we had all had a 360 view of the sound. Yes we did a doughnut in the sound, which when you consider the dimensions of this ship is quite a trick. I looked them up for you: 18 decks, gross tonnage 168,666, 348m so basically a small apartment block!
and because i know you want it, here's my photobombKing pic of the day
Spectacular scenery and what a way to experience it. I'm thinking there may be a danger of "visual sensory overload"....yes, that is a thing.
ReplyDeleteBye the bye....do you know why it is called "Doubtful Sound"?
........well, in case the answer is no....do tell.....in 1770 when Capt Cook had fulfilled his orders to observe the transits of Venus and Mercury, then "check out" if there was land to the west of Tahiti, while anchored in the shelter of the sound he conferred with his officers about which way to go home...East via the Horn or West via Batavia. They were "doubtful" about which was the better way and there was some debate and discussion before settling on heading West. Doubtful Sound was named after their difficult decision on the direction home. Solitary Islands...Doubtful Sound...Cooky sure had a way of naming things!