Fjord Land Milford Sound New Zealand

Hi Guys,

Milford Sound– New Zealand 5 March 2011

(Latitude: 44 35’South   Longitude: 167 48’ East)

(Time +13 GMT)

We have cruised 2 days across the Tasman Sea from Sydney Australia which was quite rough with 7 meter seas, fortunately the stabilizers did their job and kept things reasonably level. The sideways motion was minimal but the fore to aft motion was quiver, quiver, one, two, hesitate and then bang as the front end found water. One lady fell and seriously cut her head.

We reach Milford Sound and the Fjord lands at the South West of the South Island New Zealand. We spend the next day cruising along the coast to Doubtful Sound, Dusty Sound down and around the bottom of the South Island passed Stewart Island and round to Dunedin.

The landscape of fiord land has been constantly changing since the beginning of time. Local rocks and fossils tell the story of a land that has at different time been wet and dry, warm and cold, flat and mountainous. Fifty million years ago, the whole area was at the bottom of the sea. The land then gradually buckled and shifted due to a bit of jostling between tectonic plates.

During the last ice age the region was covered by huge glaciers, which carved out the fiords and lakes and jagged mountains as they are today. As the ice melted, it left behind lakes and the rising sea flooded in to create the fiords around the coast. As to civilization, the first people to arrive here were the Maori, about 1,000 years ago. The Maori were still here when explorer Captain Cook set up camp at Dusky Sound in 1773.

Milford Sound from the Aurora

Milford Sound Waterfall

Milford Sound

Milford Sound Waterfall

Doubtful Sound Elephant Mountain

I was intrigued as to where did New Zealand came from? I know that it sits on a subduction zone between the Pacific and the Asian plates but was the island a volcanic eruption like many of the islands and atolls in the Pacific? No, while I was in Wellington, I found out it was a part of the supercontinent Gondwanaland 160 million years ago.

About 160 million years ago when Gondwanaland started to break up and allow the formation of  Antarctica, South America, South Africa, India and Australia, New Zealand was a further piece of the supercontinent that drifted away from Antarctica, Australia and closer to the equator. However, most of the land mass on which New Zealand sat sank under the sea and only a small protrusion of land which is now New Zealand remained above the water. The north and south islands have formed the way that they are because of, the Pacific plate, is diving down under the Asian plate. The scraping action forms the Alps and rubbing, bumping action causes the earthquakes and volcanoes along the interface.

We sailed on towards Dunedin and should arrive early in the morning.  Temperatures are now 11 degrees and this is summer here in southern New Zealand.