Shore excursions new zealand

[scolli2016]

Hey all new to the cruising world. i am booked with my family to take my first cruise at the end of february from sydney to 5 ports in new zealand. i am going to picton wellington auckland napier and tauranga. basically i would like to know if anyone here has been to any of these ports and done any shore excusions there. the intimate rotorua one looks good in tauranga but its also quite pricey. also if i do not book an excursion at one of the ports, when you get off the boat is there places you can explore by yourself?

[Aus Traveller]

New Zealand is one of the easiest places to do independent tours.

 

Picton - Although we have been there a couple of times, we didn't do any tours. Someone else will have suggestions.

Wellington - Suggest taking a taxi to Te Papa (fantastic free museum). Almost over the road there is a tramway up the steep hill. Rose gardens at he top. We also loved the free tour of Parliament House. This might sound boring but it isn't. I am not sure which ship you will be on and whether you will be given a map of the city. You can pick one up in the cruise terminal when you disembark.

Auckland - Maybe the hop-on/hop-off sightseeing bus. It is a bit pricey at $40pp, but there is a commentary and you can see a lot. We enjoyed Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World (one of the stops on the bus route) and the fantastic flowers in the conservatory just down the slope from the museum.

Napier - The free shuttle will drop you at the Tourist info centre where tours are on sale. Otherwise go to the Art Deco centre and walk around town. It is very small.

Tauranga - definitely a trip to Rotorua. Either buy a tour from one of the operators in the tourist tent on the dock or hire a car and go yourself. In Rotorua we recommend going to Te Puia thermal park. See the Maori show as well.

 

Enjoy.

[scolli2016]

Thank you so much for the quick reply. The information has helped a great deal, Is it expensive to hire a car in the tauranga port. We are cruising on the Explorer of the seas by the way. also one other question, we are in an interior stateroom. When i book it said it sleeps 4 but every picture of the room i find only has 1 double bed? will there definately be enough room for my 2 kids?

[Aus Traveller]

Thank you so much for the quick reply. The information has helped a great deal, Is it expensive to hire a car in the tauranga port. We are cruising on the Explorer of the seas by the way. also one other question, we are in an interior stateroom. When i book it said it sleeps 4 but every picture of the room i find only has 1 double bed? will there definately be enough room for my 2 kids?

Tauranga - If you want to hire a car pre-book it. We have done this a couple of times and the car company will meet you just outside the wharf gates. Traffic is very leisurely in NZ so the driving is really easy.

 

I haven't stayed in the cabin you are referring to, but if they say it sleeps 4 you can be sure it will have two beds (normal single size) that pull down from the ceiling (or may fold down from the side walls near the top). Is there a drawing in the cruise brochure that shows a four berth cabin? Usually when top beds are used they recommend that the lower beds be left as singles against the wall rather than put together to make a queen size bed. We find with the cabin made up this way there is heaps more space because you have more than 1.5 metre wide strip spare down the middle of the cabin rather than two fairly useless strips down the sides of the big bed:)

Edited January 20, 2016 by Aus Traveller

[Dulcibella]

We hired a car in Tauranga. It was not too expensive in my view. We drove ourselves to Rotorua. Other places such as Auckland and Wellington we made our own way about, mostly by foot. We found no need for organised tours.

It is worth having an idea of what you would like to do with your day by doing some research. There is limited time and you must get back to the ship punctually.

[Blue Elephant]

I am on Voyager if the Seas just returning from New Zealand at the moment. We did a tour of the Hobbiton movie set out of Tauranga and a tour of the Weta Workshops in Wellington. We booked through Viatour, who seem to give a return to ship guarantee on their shore excursions. I can thoroughly recommend the Hobbiton excursion. I think you can also book a combined Rotorua and Hobbiton excursion, but it would be a long day.

 

The Weta workshop in Wellington showed us a little less than what we were expecting, so I am not sure that this was such a good excursion, unless you are a fanatic about special effects.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Blue Elephant
Corrected a typo

[clm1982]

Thank you so much for the quick reply. The information has helped a great deal, Is it expensive to hire a car in the tauranga port. We are cruising on the Explorer of the seas by the way. also one other question, we are in an interior stateroom. When i book it said it sleeps 4 but every picture of the room i find only has 1 double bed? will there definately be enough room for my 2 kids?

 

We are also going on explorer but in March.

 

the beds in the rooms come as a royal king with bunks that come down from the roof or you can get 2 sets of bunks. They are pulled down at night time and packed away in the mornings by your attendant.

 

We were also going to do tours however with the 4 of us it was going to cost like $800 so we decided to hire a car and do it ourselves. We went with thifty they put you up in a shuttle and take u to get the car then return u back to the port. Theres also rite price rentals where there office is only a short walk away but thye were a lot more expensive.

[aussielozzie18]

If you look at the deck plans here on cruise critic - you will see a little icon next to the cabin room number - it will be an asterisk, "t" . These tell you if you have pullman beds (beds that come down from the ceilings like bunk beds) or a sofa beds in your cabin. I cant remember which icon is which. Someone else here will advise. Double check and make sure one of those icons is listed next to your cabin number.

 

Auckland you dock right in the city centre. Easy access to the Skytower, shopping and ferry trips.

 

Tauranga is a nice spot in itself. Or you can do a private tour to Rotorua . Search online for private tours. The good ones offer a guarantee to get you back to ship before departure.

 

Put the names of the places you are visiting in the search icon on this site and you will get lots of info.

[scolli2016]

thank you everyone for the replies you have all been very helpful. above is the deck plan and we are in 1255+

[raks]

Hey all new to the cruising world. i am booked with my family to take my first cruise at the end of february from sydney to 5 ports in new zealand. i am going to picton wellington auckland napier and tauranga. basically i would like to know if anyone here has been to any of these ports and done any shore excusions there. the intimate rotorua one looks good in tauranga but its also quite pricey. also if i do not book an excursion at one of the ports, when you get off the boat is there places you can explore by yourself?

 

Wellington - we did a storm coast tour in the morning. We went all the way around the coast to a lovely property and saw a sheep dog demo, then in the afternoon we went up the cable car/tram way to the top, great views.

 

Auckland - as has been said the ship docks right in the middle of the city. We caught a ferry over to Devonport and had a coffee and a poke around the cute shops then we went to the seafood markets in (10 minute walk from the ship) for lunch and also did a lap on the HOHO bus.

 

Napier - loved Napier, the locals really put in an effort when the ships are in port, we took the ships bus to the middle of town, rode a little open road train around town for an hour, walked to the aquarium and had a look around the town where the locals were dressed in costume with street performers, old fashioned cars and all sorts of things happening right where you get of the ships bus.

 

Tauranga - we had a 3rd party tour to Rotorua, Archers Tours, it was a small group tour, in a mini bus, if you are planning on visiting Rotorua I would suggest a small group tour, not one of the big bus tours from the ship. We also stopped at Kiwi world (not sure if that's the correct name but that's what I remember it as), it was extremely busy there but was worth a look. Its also a nice drive out to Rotorua with lots of nice scenery along the way.

 

I got lots of info from the ports threads here on cruise critic.

 

We loved NZ, amazingly beautiful place and hope to do another NZ cruise sometime in the future, enjoy.

[aussielozzie18]

Kiwi360 is the kiwiworld. It was our first stop on our private tour and it was worth a visit.

[Ladytainn]

We were on the Explorer in December to NZ

Wellington is easy, a bus will be at the dock, pre book if you want to, it will take you either to the tourist bureau or the entrance to the cable car. The tourist bureau can book you any local tours, we did the Weta Cave for 60 each, 12 people on the tour it returned to where the bus dropped us off so very easy to get back. If you haven't been there before the cable car is fun, buy ticket when you get off the bus, you can walk back down, great views if the weather is right.

 

Auckland, boat docks right in port, bit of a walk down the huge pier, which has shops etc then the hop on hop off bus stop is at the end of the pier, 40 each, the ferry terminal is just the next pier over on the left, the trip to Devenport takes 12 minutes, a very pretty place, there is a bus tour there at the end of the pier, 20 each, goes right around the island depending on their age the kids might like the park areas and tunnels on the high hills.

 

Tauranga you can book tours in small groups either before or when you arrive at the very well organised tent at the dock entrance, small group tours are 145 each, less for kids. If you google tours Tauranga you will get lots to choose from, Kiwi 360 and the giant trees are included on some. Entrance tickets to Rotorua including the cultural performance are about 50 per adult.

Edited January 22, 2016 by Ladytainn