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Milford Sound: Mega QM2 in NZ's 8th Wonder of the World!!


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Boy she sure looks big - we were on Solstice which is a little smaller and were surprised at how far into the sound she could get. QM2 looks like she did the same.

 

Obviuously the QM2 fixed their problem with the radar (or whatever it was) that they had in Wellington to be able to get through the sounds. :rolleyes:

 

It would be a sight to see 2 ships the size of the QM2 and Solstice go through behind each other. The area itself was so wild and was the site of my first sighting of dolphins swimming in the wild that I have ever seen.

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From the Saturday Daily Mail in London (plus other Sidney, Auckland, etc. newspapers in the past couple of days), they had this headline: "A cruise with a stunning view: World's largest passenger ship the Queen Mary 2 sails into New Zealand's eighth wonder of the world". Here are some of the story highlights: "The Queen Mary 2 became the largest ship to visit Milford Sound in New Zealand today, sailing into the World Heritage-listed Fiordland National Park on the latest stop in a round-the-world voyage. The 151,400-tonne Cunard flagship cruised the waters of the fjord featured heavily in the Lord Of The Rings films. Author Rudyard Kipling was so taken with the area that he called it the eighth wonder of the world. It is within the boundaries of the Fiordland National Park and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site, protected for its outstanding natural beauty. The liner reached a height of 200ft above the water but was dwarfed by the stunning scenery. Unesco describes Milford Sound as ‘the least-disturbed tenth of New Zealand's land mass’. Although it is one of the wettest inhabited places in the world, it is New Zealand's most popular tourist destination, and it's not hard to see why."

 

Looking forward to seeing Milford Sound and these other great sights during our Solstice adventure, Jan. 20-Feb. 4, 2014. Below are some of the photos used in these news articles to document this ship's visit. How will our Celebrity Solstice look when visiting these same, dramatic areas? Another story indicated that it was "touch and go" as to whether the professional photographer for Cunard would be able to complete this camera shoot from a helicopter during this sailing due to the varied/challenging weather conditions.

 

Full story at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2294399/Worlds-largest-passenger-ship-Queen-Mary-2-sails-New-Zealands-eighth-wonder-world.html

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Celebrity Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 123,837 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

 

 

Here are four visuals from the Daily Mail website in London for the Queen Mary 2 sailing in super scenic Milford Sound. Like this great NZ location??:

 

QM2-MilfordSound3_zps218cbd08.jpg

 

 

QM2-MilfordSound1_zpsa5bea945.jpg

 

 

QM2-MilfordSound4_zps310b8ac1.jpg

 

 

QM2-MilfordSound2_zpscc96df6e.jpg

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Was a great day when we sailed thro.

 

Surprised the captain pushed his ship in close like that to the waterfall - we didn't and I wouldn't have thought it was allowed.

 

We saw some sea lions in the sounds but also some dolphins swimming next to us and racing the ship as we headed out.

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I was disappointed we did not stick our bow in the waterfall. All the Royal Caribbean ships are sticking their bow into the waterfall when they go in and there are plenty of photos on the net to prove it.

 

I personally thought Doubtful and Dusky Sounds were better than Milford. I have photos from the Solstice going in but still have to do a lot of work here and am taking longer to upload them than expected. Its hard to upload 18MP photos when servers only like small sized photos.

 

New Zealand calls it Fiordland whilst if you go to Norway they are called Fjords. In both countries they are completely different. When I did Norway their Fjords were surrounded by steep slopes of extremely green grass, it then went into trees higher up and even higher up you got the rocky snow capped mountains. In New Zealand it is just the rocky cliff face with trees. There is no grass like in Norway and Norway is extremely green compared to New Zealand.

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Have to agree with you Sutho.

 

I thought the other 2 were far more spectacular.

 

Funny you mention the green - I thought the South Island was particularly green especially after Australia (I know the North Island wasn't as they have a drought going on).

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Have to agree with you Sutho.

 

I thought the other 2 were far more spectacular.

 

Funny you mention the green - I thought the South Island was particularly green especially after Australia (I know the North Island wasn't as they have a drought going on).

 

It was green. Though I would probably describe New Zealand as more of a deep green.

 

Milford was the area I missed out on during my first cruise to New Zealand and had always wanted to see it. The first time I went in 2005 I saw Doubtful and Dusky in full sunshine and they were spectacular.

 

By the looks of the maps there are other areas that will perhaps open up to cruise ships in the future when Milford Doubtful and Dusky have been done to death.

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We also have a soft spot for Doubtful and Dusky sounds. Christine is a direct decendant of Captain John Grono who named many locations in Doubtful Sound such as Mt Grono and Grono Bay.

Here are a couple of photo's showing the contrasts in those areas.

 

Lush Forests of Dusky Sound

IMGP0969_copy_zpscd17473e.jpg

 

Many Waterfalls in Doubtful Sound

IMGP0926_copy_zps54dee35e.jpg

 

Gliding through Misty Dusky Sound

IMGP0986_copy_zpse7f85d02.jpg

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I was disappointed we did not stick our bow in the waterfall. All the Royal Caribbean ships are sticking their bow into the waterfall when they go in and there are plenty of photos on the net to prove it.

 

I think it depends on the agreement the cruise line has signed with Environment Southland and how much water is going over the waterfall and the ship its self.

 

As far as I am aware is only Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas & maybe the Rhapsody of the Seas (When she came to NZ) (Voyager of the Seas cant, too big!) and Crystal ships (Crystal Symphony & Crystal Serenity) (I have got webcam captures of the bow in the waterfall) that can go in to the waterfall.

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I think it depends on the agreement the cruise line has signed with Environment Southland and how much water is going over the waterfall and the ship its self.

 

As far as I am aware is only Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas & maybe the Rhapsody of the Seas (When she came to NZ) (Voyager of the Seas cant, too big!) and Crystal ships (Crystal Symphony & Crystal Serenity) (I have got webcam captures of the bow in the waterfall) that can go in to the waterfall.

 

yes - I can confirm that VOS did NOT approach any waterfall

 

Barry

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This is a pic of Radiance of the Seas approaching Stirling Falls in Milford Sound. Note the wind chop on the water - it was extremely windy - and the Captain did explain that it was very difficult to hold the ship in position and that this would not have been possible had it not been for there recent refurbishment and updates to there contol systems. The ship has huge bow trusters and Azipod propulsion making her very maneuverable.

The photo was taken from our balcony and we still got wet:D

bca2b7dd.jpg

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Have to agree with you Sutho.

 

I thought the other 2 were far more spectacular.

 

Funny you mention the green - I thought the South Island was particularly green especially after Australia (I know the North Island wasn't as they have a drought going on).

 

 

We are from the Bega Valley NSW & we actually found Dunedin farm lands we saw on the Taieri Gorge train trip looked a lot like home!

 

I guess the perspective on what is 'green' is based on where in Australia you live.:)

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I confirm no nose in to waterfall on Voyager as mentioned by Barry, plus the waterfalls were not very active compared to some of the pics, but they were having a dry spell when we were there.

 

I guess the QM2 & Voyager being very close in size must be just too big to do it, but I wonder what the size cut off is?

 

QM2 is about 10% longer than Voyager of the Seas, but Voyager is approx 13% wider than QM2.

 

Maybe it's the ships draft that is the factor? Anybody know?

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I think it depends on the agreement the cruise line has signed with Environment Southland and how much water is going over the waterfall and the ship its self. As far as I am aware is only Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas & maybe the Rhapsody of the Seas (When she came to NZ) (Voyager of the Seas cant, too big!) and Crystal ships (Crystal Symphony & Crystal Serenity) (I have got webcam captures of the bow in the waterfall) that can go in to the waterfall.

 

Appreciate this added background information on the differences for what ships get how close and near to the various waterfalls in the NZ fjordlands. Will share with those on our roll call. Helpful!!

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Celebrity Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 124,173 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

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