Day 9 - The Sounds

Monday 12th January, 2009 12pm
Yesterday, we had ‘boat church’! About 14 of us got together and Ken, one of the men we met, led us in a bible study of John 3:14 and its corresponding verse in Numbers. It was really great to get together and study God’s word with people we had just met but with whom we had something great in common.
After that, we had to go through NZ immigration and customs. The NZ officers got on the ship in Melbourne, and so get 3 days’ passage on the trip for 1 days’ worth of checking passports! What a life. After that, we played Jenga with Kenton, Ken’s son, who we have been spending some time with. After more games of Jenga and cards, we headed off to have lunch and then a swim.

After that, we had a nap, went to the gym and got dressed up for formal night. Dinner was amazing again! I had chicken and mushroom vol au vents; baked potato soup with bacon; osso bucca milanese with saffron risotto and chocolate lava pudding! We headed back to Mum and Dad’s room after dinner to watch Tropic Thunder all together and got back to our room at about 1am.
Today we are cruising through the sounds – Milford, Doubtful and Dusky. We got up early at 6.30 to get rugged up and go up to Deck 11 to watch us sail into Milford Sound by 7am. We have been told that this is the best weather ever (according to Basuki who has done this trip 6 times now). The skies were clear and the temperatures were quite crisp. When we were up at Deck 11, there were crowds of people there and it was quite sunny. We decided to take advantage of the thermal mug and hot chocolate deal on offer and head down to Mum and Dad’s cabin to watch the sounds from their balcony. All 6 of us spent from 7am to 9am there watching as we sailed into and out of Milford Sound. It is amazingly beautiful and I don’t think you could ever get a proper idea of how majestic it is unless you come here yourself. We took a stack of photos, though, in an attempt to preserve the memories. It was very cold once we entered the sounds so we were rugged up in scarves and wrapped up in blankets sitting on the balcony, which was quite a nice change from the weather we have been experiencing back home in the Ville!

At 10am, we went to the grand Brunch buffet in the dining room. There were huge bouquets of flowers that were actually fruit carvings – radishes, beetroot etc. Also, there were little bakery shops and people that were made out of baked bread. Ah! So cool! There was so much food that it seemed rather excessive (much more than the ‘normal’ excess that we have been experiencing here). We hope that it gets eaten and does not go to waste. I do wonder what the crew members think when they get paid so little but see the passengers just gorging themselves or wasting copious amounts of food unnecessarily.
Now we are on the balcony again watching as we cruise through Doubtful Sound. Still gorgeous, but it is not quite as breathtaking as Milford was. Heading to Dunedin tomorrow which should be fun. We have arranged shuttle bus tickets to take us from the port into the city. We’ll just wander around and do our own thing. Xoxo