Favorite cruise line NZ only with best ports

[Ellen495]

Hi! I started a new thread.

We were set to do 3 weeks land Australia on our own and then cruise to NZ. But the idea of days at sea is turning us off. We'd like to fly to NZ from Australia and simply cruise (alternate is skip the cruise and do land only) but I'd prefer to cruise.

 

I looked at Windstar - nice and small and maybe more ports of call?

 

Any thoughts appreciated.

Ellen 🙂

[Aus Traveller]

From what I know of Windstar, they are quite expensive.

 

Presumably this would be your first (and maybe only) trip to NZ. If you want to see the country, you would see more on a land tour. It is an easy country to get around by car with not too much traffic.

[Ellen495]

Thanks Aus. I don't know what cities and where to start. Thinking fly to Queensland from Australia. Fly to Christchurch. Drive to Nelson. Fly to Wellington. Fly to Auckland (and drive the Rotund as suggested on Tripadvisor). But that seems like so much flying - packing, unpacking ....... After 3 weeks in Australia. I wish it was closer and we could just do Australia and come back to NZ next year. The flight cost is astronomical (business). 

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, Ellen495 said:

Thanks Aus. I don't know what cities and where to start. Thinking fly to Queensland from Australia. Fly to Christchurch. Drive to Nelson. Fly to Wellington. Fly to Auckland (and drive the Rotund as suggested on Tripadvisor). But that seems like so much flying - packing, unpacking ....... After 3 weeks in Australia. I wish it was closer and we could just do Australia and come back to NZ next year. The flight cost is astronomical (business). 

If you feel you could drive, I strongly suggest you don't fly between the cities. You waste too much time sitting in airports and you would be missing the lovely countryside. And as you mention - too much packing.

 

For the South Island, probably start in Christchurch and drive around the island. If you don't want to spend too long, don't do the northern quarter of the island - just cross the mountains directly west of Christchurch (via Arthurs Pass) then head south on the west coast with a side detour to Milford Sound. The scenery is much more spectacular in the South Island than in the North Island.

 

You could fly from Christchurch to Auckland and once again hire a car to do a smaller circuit including Rotorua (south of Auckland and inland) and maybe the Coromandel Peninsula north of Auckland.

[Ellen495]

So skip Queenstown? (I'm fine with anything - I know about zero - though someone told me that Nelson was our dream town as we love small towns, fine wine, the sea, and hiking (not long hikes and not cold ones).

 

Okay - I'm up for the drive if it's not more than 5 hours per day. 

You're suggesting we base in Christchurch and do day drives and then fly to Auckland?

 

Yes and I've heard go to Rotorua over and over - so yeah! How do we figure out how and where to drive? I hate to just get a travel agent to book things - I much prefer to figure them out on Tripadvisor - but WOW - THANK YOU for helping off topic of a cruise. I organized our 3 week in Australia with the help of TA and no travel agent (other than air)

Edited September 26, 2022 by Ellen495

[cruisermsoon]

Have a look at these two Azamara cruises: 

04th January 2023 17n Melbourne to Auckland 

21st January 2023 16n Auckland to Sydney 

Both have a good selection of N.Z. ports plus a couple of Australian ones, and not many sea days.

[Ellen495]

1 hour ago, cruisermsoon said:

Have a look at these two Azamara cruises: 

04th January 2023 17n Melbourne to Auckland 

21st January 2023 16n Auckland to Sydney 

Both have a good selection of N.Z. ports plus a couple of Australian ones, and not many sea days.

Thank you! I will look at them!

[cruiser3775]

Another cruise to look at:  Holland America Noordam Sydney to Auckland 11 March, which goes to a few more ports than some of the others, and only two days at sea crossing to NZ - might be a nice rest for you after the Australian land tour.

You could ask for help with an itinerary on the Trip Advisor New Zealand Forum. There are some real experts there for land based itineraries.

[Aus Traveller]

4 hours ago, Ellen495 said:

So skip Queenstown? (I'm fine with anything - I know about zero - though someone told me that Nelson was our dream town as we love small towns, fine wine, the sea, and hiking (not long hikes and not cold ones).

 

Okay - I'm up for the drive if it's not more than 5 hours per day. 

You're suggesting we base in Christchurch and do day drives and then fly to Auckland?

 

Yes and I've heard go to Rotorua over and over - so yeah! How do we figure out how and where to drive? I hate to just get a travel agent to book things - I much prefer to figure them out on Tripadvisor - but WOW - THANK YOU for helping off topic of a cruise. I organized our 3 week in Australia with the help of TA and no travel agent (other than air)

I'm not suggesting you base yourself in Christchurch, but use it as a starting point for a round trip. Travel on each day and usually stopping somewhere different each night, travelling on a circular route around the bottom 'half' of the South Island. That way the vehicle you hire can be returned to the hiring depot. Christchurch is a major city for flights to and from. 

 

See if you can buy a guide book of NZ. They will usually include maps. Here is a link to one

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36071501-new-zealand-discover-atlas-and-guide

[Over from NZ]

9 hours ago, Ellen495 said:

So skip Queenstown? (I'm fine with anything - I know about zero - though someone told me that Nelson was our dream town as we love small towns, fine wine, the sea, and hiking (not long hikes and not cold ones).

 

Okay - I'm up for the drive if it's not more than 5 hours per day. 

You're suggesting we base in Christchurch and do day drives and then fly to Auckland?

 

Yes and I've heard go to Rotorua over and over - so yeah! How do we figure out how and where to drive? I hate to just get a travel agent to book things - I much prefer to figure them out on Tripadvisor - but WOW - THANK YOU for helping off topic of a cruise. I organized our 3 week in Australia with the help of TA and no travel agent (other than air)

I agree with Aus Traveller. NZ is far better done by land. You miss so much of the best stuff by cruise. And I agree with them the South Island is the prettier of the 2. Drive from Christchurch to the West Coast (or take the tranzalpine train if you can pick up a rental on the coast - the train ride is excellent). Head down the West Coast (perhaps a wee detour North to the Punakaiki Rocks first), past the glaciers etc and drive the Haast Pass. Google the Haast Pass - it's an excellent piece of scenery! From there, you're into the Southern Lakes, Queenstown etc. From Queenstown - get the bus to Milford Sound and go out on the boat. Don't drive it! leave your car in Queenstown. You'll enjoy it far better through a glass-roofed coach than if you're carefully driving the winding road. It's awesome. You could fly back from Queenstown to Christchurch to save the long drive. Then you could head up to Nelson, the Marlborough Wine Region.. the Abel Tasman is near Nelson and is super pretty and you've got Picton a couple of hours from Nelson with the Marlborough Sounds. From there you could cross over to the North Island. 

[NSWP]

Drive NZ, see more than on a cruise, I have done both over the years.

🚙🚢

 

[ELep]

Most people drive the South Island in a loop of anywhere between 8 days.(super rushed, you will only see a few highlights so not recommended) to 21 days. Two weeks is a common amount of time. Done as CHC to ZQN or reverse. Or a loop from CHC. TripAdvisor has some excellent info on the SI forum.

[Ellen495]

This sounds perfect. I had a TA post about 6 days prior to the cruise, but I should probably start a new thread. This has been so helpful - thank you! 

 

[mr walker]

We received some excellent advice on a land tour, including particularly from Julie @OzKiwiJJ , ahead of our cruise (AKL to SYD) in Jan '19. We planned around visiting places we wouldn't visit on the cruise.

 

Based on the advice we flew into Christchurch & picked up rental. We stayed in ChCh , Mt Cook, Queenstown (3N), Franz Josef, Westport, Picton, crossed Cook Straight to Nth Island on the ferry, & stayed at Tongariro (2N), Waitomo & then Auckland ahead of the cruise. All accommodation & car rental was arranged thru a NZ tour company, which worked well for us.

 

So 12N for maybe 2/3 of Sth Island & 1/4 of Nth Island. We made the most of the time, but another week at least would have been better.

 

Good luck - it is a wonderful place to visit.