Blog for Tuesday 20th October 2026

When I woke up I shot to the curtains and drew them back quickly just as we were about to go into the Milford Sound! What a beautiful sight and such a wonderful way to wake up!\

I grabbed my phone and went out onto our verandah, but yikes, it was r-a-t-h-e-r chilly out there. I took some lovely photos I think, but my phone was flat – my not charging it overnight being the reason for that, silly me! At least I had enough battery, thankfully to take the photos I wanted.

I am so happy that we got to go in and to see the Milford Sound, as weather often prohibits entry. So, I was really pleased. The sun even came out to dispel some of the mist hanging low, making everything bright and beautiful.

Then it was out to sea again, and today the sea is definitely a lot choppier, but again, in a ship this size the motion is not too bad, but it does affect the way you walk!

Aaargh! I have spent ages and ages trying to connect our website - but I know it has something to do with the Optus link, but my IT knowledge is rather limited, and I am scared of running up an incredible debt by setting up a roaming account! Frustration doesn’t even begin to describe my feeling at the moment.

Today has been a LOT cooler and grey and overcast so I reckon we got in to see The Milford Sound just in time. The other two sounds – Doubtful and Dusky were lovely but not as pretty as the Milford Sound one. I am delighted that we got to see all three.

Here we were entering The Milford Sound and you can see the mist or fog lying over the distant hills

In the Milford Sound we saw two waterfalls – one large one at the top of the Sound and where our ship slowly turned around to exit, and a smaller one just as we were about to leave the Sound.

I am amazed at the green of New Zealand and the lumps of land that pop up out of the sea everywhere. It looks like a truly beautiful land, and I can only imagine what the men who discovered it must have felt when they first saw it.

 The large waterfall …

The smaller waterfall just before we left The Milford Sound

Today there has been quite a steady wind blowing and the sea looks a little like a washing machine, with white horses racing all over the ocean!

I meant to mention that in The Milford Sound we saw dolphins frolicking around and after the ship – they were having such fun. The sheer beauty of nature does wonders for the soul.

Today the things that were on were not of great interest to us, so we just spent time in one of the lounges watching people and the ocean.

At dinner we sat next to and made friends with a younger couple from the Gold Coast – very nice people. They are well experienced cruisers, and they passed on some knowledge that they had only learnt today to us which was very helpful.

Apparently, you can dine in whatever restaurant you have reserved a table in, but from there you are able to order any dish you fancy from any of the other restaurants! Each restaurant publishes their own menu and so you are able to select from that! Brilliant!

That makes me happy as there is only one restaurant that I was unable to make a reservation in, so we can now look at their menu and select a dish or dishes from that and enjoy it in whatever restaurant we find ourselves in that night.

They also highlighted which areas of the ship we must spend time in, so that is on my list of To Do for tomorrow.

All over the ship there are paintings or sculptures which I find fascinating. Look at these ones that were on our way to the Normandie Restaurant tonight …

My title for this is "I feel targeted"

=And my title for this one is ...

A Lick of Paint!

Once we got back to our cabin, I phoned Mich’ and we were able to have a long chat and catch up. I laughed as she sent me a photo of the area in the driveway at home, where Robert had to re-concrete the area that he had had to jackhammer out for the plumber to find the water leak. Robert did a good job and our resident bush turkey left his footprints in it for posterity!

What lesson did I learn today? To enjoy … enjoy … enjoy this cruise to the inth degree!

What am I grateful  for today? That the weather was kind to us and we got to see The Milford Sound, and The Doubtful and Dusky Sounds too.

My saying for today is …