Cruising Fiordland National Park; Burnie?

Doing a bit of the old research relative to our upcoming cruise on the Noordam 2/1/18-2/18/18 Sydney to Auckland; I thought we would do a couple of separate land trips instead of a cruise, but having just done a 3 week land trip to Japan we decided to save our energy and get the lay of the land from the sea:eek: with the hope we can follow up with later separate trips to NZ and Oz.

I notice that many of the cruise ships touch on or cruise by 3 Sounds, whereas Noordam has a 2 hour shift in Milford Bay only; then they spend two days cruising Fiordland National Park without a stop. Does anyone have some incite on that? What am I missing re: the sounds, and what can you see in two days of cruising the park that you wouldn't see in one?

One of the reasons I liked this cruise is that it has 3 stops on Taz, including one at Burnie, can I pick up a tour in port there? My inclination is to look for tours off the ship where we can book direct and there is no middle man (or 20+ people on a bus) to share the fare/experience (and I don't want to spend $900 for a tour). Anyone have a great tour from to recommend? We are supposed to be there from 8 AM to 7 PM.

Thanks.

There are more sounds in Fiordland than just Milford, Doubtful and Dusky, so I guess Noordam explores a few more of those.

Thanks; I wondered why the Noordam would skip Doubtful and Dusky sound and spend 2 days elsewhere; maybe I should seek more info at the HAL CC site.

There are more sounds in Fiordland than just Milford, Doubtful and Dusky, so I guess Noordam explores a few more of those.

I know when we went on Diamond the Capt said he was going to do as many as he could in the time we had, he later said we did 12.

the stop in Milford is to basically drop people who are doing the overnight stop in Queenstown before re-joining the ship in Dunedin (Port Chalmers).

Weather dependant, cruising the sounds with have you entering one and exiting out of the other while possibly cruising through a few in between. All very lovely.

the stop in Milford is to basically drop people who are doing the overnight stop in Queenstown before re-joining the ship in Dunedin (Port Chalmers).

Weather dependant, cruising the sounds with have you entering one and exiting out of the other while possibly cruising through a few in between. All very lovely.

The Marlborough Sounds are beautiful too if you get to Picton

Thanks all; I'll be happy to sit back and enjoy the views.

Thanks; I wondered why the Noordam would skip Doubtful and Dusky sound and spend 2 days elsewhere; maybe I should seek more info at the HAL CC site.

I imagine Noordam will go through Doubtful and Dusky as well as entering some of the smaller sounds. Doubtful and Dusky are the only two sounds where you can enter one way and exit another as both have a large island off the mainland coastline of the sound.

I know when we went on Diamond the Capt said he was going to do as many as he could in the time we had, he later said we did 12.

That must have been wonderful, Gut. Those sounds are so pristine. Most are only accessible by water.

Heres a thread from a while ago

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1471937&highlight=fiordland+map

post no 5 shows the path that most cruise ships take while scenic cruising.

That's the route most of the ships do when they're doing Fiordland in the one day, however the OP's cruise will be in that region for just over 1.5 days - they arrive in Milford at 11am on the first day there, spend two hours in Milford, then have the rest of that day and the whole of the next day as scenic cruising in Fiordland so they'll probably visit a few more of the sounds, I would imagine.

That must have been wonderful, Gut. Those sounds are so pristine. Most are only accessible by water.

It was incredible, save I thought my fingers were going to fall off it was so cold, but I wanted to keep photographing.

He said we had time so why not spend it in the sounds.

my cruise we missed Dusky due to low cloud , then we got into doubtful and out via thompson and then into Millford was awesome

Heres a thread from a while ago

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1471937&highlight=fiordland+map

post no 5 shows the path that most cruise ships take while scenic cruising.

This pretty much what we did on the Ovation (huge ship) so any of the smaller ships could do more.:D

I imagine Noordam will go through Doubtful and Dusky as well as entering some of the smaller sounds. Doubtful and Dusky are the only two sounds where you can enter one way and exit another as both have a large island off the mainland coastline of the sound.

You can actually do similar in Thompson Sound, the Breaksea Sound, the Edwardson Sound, the Cunarus Sound, the Isthmus Sound, the Acheron Passage and the Eastern Passage.

Thanks all for fleshing it out; I don't mind a little uncertainty if I have the general picture.