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Which land/cruise itinerary for Australia/NZ?


epixx
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We enjoy outdoor activities and are going in December.

 

1) Melbourne 3 days, Queenstown 1.5 days, followed by Auckland to Sydney cruise 13 days with 9 port days (Tauranga overnight, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, New Plymouth, Nelson, Kaikoura, Akaroa, Port Chalmers) and one day Fjordland Cruising, then Sydney 4 days.

 

2) Melbourne 4 days, Queenstown 2.5 days, Rotorua 2 days, Auckland 1 day followed by Auckland to Sydney cruise 10 days with 5 port days (Tauranga, Wellington, Picton, Akaroa, Port Chalmers) and one day Fjordland Cruising, then Sydney 2 days.

 

 

Flights to Melbourne and from Sydney cannot be changed. Which itinerary is better?

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I'd choose the first one.

With an overnight in Tauranga you'll have plenty of time to see Rotorua, it's only an hour away.

Napier is a gorgeous Art Deco city, worth visiting.

Kaikoura would be a real bonus for whale watching.

It's very unusual to see New Plymouth on the ports list. West coast NZ ports aren't usually visited. Does the ship go up there from Wellington, then come back down to Nelson?

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We are mostly interested in seeing beautiful scenery! Our whole reason for wanting to visit New Zealand has to do with the fact that someone we knew years ago who had traveled the world thought that New Zealand was the most beautiful place he had ever been. (He also met his wife there, which might have figured into that, LOL.) 3 yrs. ago we had an AUS/NZ cruise planned that we had to cancel after my husband suffered a major medical emergency that has altered his mobility and greatly affected the things he is able to do. So the active pursuits an extra trips we had planned the other time won’t be possible this time. Trying to decide if this trip and the long flight and expense will be worth it. Seeing the beauty would be our main reason by far. I really, really hope this doesn’t sound snotty or like we have seen everything in the world but we have actually seen a few thermal sites in various places so that is not a priority for us. Birds and seals we have also seen before. We are not into Harry Potter (although I imagine seeing places used in the movie might be cool). We have enjoyed some traditional cultural events and shows in French Polynesia and Hawaii on land trips and would enjoy seeing things like that and things having to do with the Maori culture. I understand in Rotorua there is a good opportunity along that line but a lot of those tours seem to have a lot to do with thetmsl activity. I wonder if the focus and time spent would be more on that or more on the cultural aspects?

 

I really appreciate your replies and welcome any more recommendations from others who have visited New Zealand via cruise ship. Thanks for your posts and the information.

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We are not into Harry Potter (although I imagine seeing places used in the movie might be cool).
Were you thinking of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies?

 

I think that this cannot be said often enough: if you really want to see New Zealand, a cruise is not a good way of doing it.

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I absolutely agree with you and have visited many countries independently on land trips. We have done just a couple of tours and while they were interesting enough, I greatly prefer to be on my own schedule, stopping when and where I want and so forth. Besides that, the tours to New Zealand and Australia are quite pricey. Traveling with someone with limited mobility means I get all the work of the trip. Although I’ve always been the planner, I am also the driver the navigator and take care of every aspect of the trip as well as constantly making sure my DH can handle whatever we do. While l there is that aspect to a cruise, for the money you do see a glimpse of numerous places and I just don’t feel like dragging luggage around to different spots and doing all the legwork. When we are on an independent trip, believe me, we pack a lot in. Always build in some relaxing time but that’s the style we prefer. Just ports are enough this time around. Would of course do a few days in Australia on the ends of the cruise but we are having a lot of difficulty deciding if we want to undertake any trip was such a long flight at present. Thanks for the input .

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