People who have been on New Zealand Australia cruise

[oskidunker]

Please let me know which ship tours you liked and those you did not. Am on Jan 6 cruise

[KBs mum]

Went on the rotarua one for logistical reasons, at least ah hour was wasted on lunch rather than returning to Tauranga before lunch

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

The wildlife boat in Dunedin NZ was our favorite excursion of the entire cruise. It's a very small boat that takes you out to see a huge variety of wild life and it is amazing. If you are prone to getting sick it might not be a good choice as it's a bit of a wild ride at times. 

[Heidi13]

8 hours ago, oskidunker said:

Please let me know which ship tours you liked and those you did not. Am on Jan 6 cruise

 

The only Shorex we booked was the Hunter Valley tour from Sydney. Brilliant tour, but there was only 4 pax. All other ports in Aus/NZ we did small group private tours, which were exceptional.

[amtatom]

 

Here's my review from last year. I know there are others if you search.

Edited May 26 by amtatom
Wrong link

[oskidunker]

On 5/26/2024 at 7:02 AM, amtatom said:

Thank you for the excellent review. I made notes and will do most of what you suggest.We are also doing theAustralia circum navigation so I will post. Request to get excursion reviews there
 

Here's my review from last year. I know there are others if you search.

 

[oskidunker]

We would like to visit some wineries.  Since we are in Auckland for a week before the cruise, I would assume we can do this with a local tour or on our own. Any suggestions??

[KBs mum]

18 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

We would like to visit some wineries.  Since we are in Auckland for a week before the cruise, I would assume we can do this with a local tour or on our own. Any suggestions??

All wineries are similar regarding growing and producing. A local wine merchant tasting event may be better for a representative selection

[PeterGavin]

Auckland Area Wineries.

 

https://nzwinedirectory.co.nz/wine-regions/north-island/auckland/

 

Waiheke Island; Matakana (North); Helensville/Waitakeres (West).

[millybess]

On 5/25/2024 at 11:58 AM, oskidunker said:

Please let me know which ship tours you liked and those you did not. Am on Jan 6 cruise

I think you are cruising on Viking Venus?

 

On the Viking Cruises website, one of the ports is Napier.  However, on the invoice it's a sea day.  I assume your invoice is the same and Venus doesn't stop at Napier?

[katlew]

On 5/27/2024 at 2:37 PM, oskidunker said:

We would like to visit some wineries.  Since we are in Auckland for a week before the cruise, I would assume we can do this with a local tour or on our own. Any suggestions??

We stayed in Auckland for a week before our cruise & booked a winery tour of Waiheke Island. It's easy to get over to the island by ferry & our driver/guide met us there. We visited 3 or 4 wineries, one where we had a lovely lunch, and an olive oil press. It was a wonderful day. We also booked a day trip to Hobbiton & the Glow Worm Caves from Aukland rather than do the Viking one. It's a long day, but allowed us to do something else that day of the Hobbiton tours from the ship. An Aucky Walky is also another fun way to see some of Auckland with a guide if you like walking tours. We did Vikings Panoramic drive of Auckland which was fine, but a little long. We did enjoy some of the stops & the history.

 

The other thing we booked on our own was Zealandia in Wellington. It's cheaper to book on your own, but you do need to get yourself there & back, we found Ubers very easy. Since we were 6 people, we had our own guide at Zealandia which was nicer than being in a large group. 

 

Most of our cruise was messed up & we didn't make it into any ports between Wellington & Sydney, so I can't give much more information.

[oskidunker]

10 minutes ago, katlew said:

We stayed in Auckland for a week before our cruise & booked a winery tour of Waiheke Island. It's easy to get over to the island by ferry & our driver/guide met us there. We visited 3 or 4 wineries, one where we had a lovely lunch, and an olive oil press. It was a wonderful day. We also booked a day trip to Hobbiton & the Glow Worm Caves from Aukland rather than do the Viking one. It's a long day, but allowed us to do something else that day of the Hobbiton tours from the ship. An Aucky Walky is also another fun way to see some of Auckland with a guide if you like walking tours. We did Vikings Panoramic drive of Auckland which was fine, but a little long. We did enjoy some of the stops & the history.

 

The other thing we booked on our own was Zealandia in Wellington. It's cheaper to book on your own, but you do need to get yourself there & back, we found Ubers very easy. Since we were 6 people, we had our own guide at Zealandia which was nicer than being in a large group. 

 

Most of our cruise was messed up & we didn't make it into any ports between Wellington & Sydney, so I can't give much more information.

Can you give me the contact info for the guide?

[katlew]

46 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Can you give me the contact info for the guide?

It was this tour, https://www.viator.com/tours/Waiheke-Island/Private-Essence-of-Waiheke-Wine-Tour/ but there were lots of options.

[oskidunker]

19 hours ago, katlew said:

It was this tour, https://www.viator.com/tours/Waiheke-Island/Private-Essence-of-Waiheke-Wine-Tour/ but there were lots of options.

You can also pay less by going direct to the tour company. Lunch also included. Not sure about when you have to pay. Thanks again. 

[katlew]

37 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

You can also pay less by going direct to the tour company. Lunch also included. Not sure about when you have to pay. Thanks again. 

That's very true & I think we did end up doing that with some of our tours.

[new2cruise]

On 5/25/2024 at 5:59 PM, Heidi13 said:

The only Shorex we booked was the Hunter Valley tour from Sydney. Brilliant tour, but there was only 4 pax. All other ports in Aus/NZ we did small group private tours, which were exceptional.

Heidi13, could you tell us which other private tours you did in Aus/NZ and a bit about them?

Thanks!

[Heidi13]

4 hours ago, new2cruise said:

Heidi13, could you tell us which other private tours you did in Aus/NZ and a bit about them?

Thanks!

 

Bay of Islands - we used Shore trips & Tours, Brilliant tour that picked us up from the wharf and returned us for the last tender, Visited all the local highlights and a show at the Treaty Grounds

 

Auckland - numerous visits. Once hired a private plane to fly down to Rotorua for the day, we also spent a couple of days using the local Ho-Ho and have made extensive use of the local ferries. The local vendor we have also used, unfortunately has retired.

 

Napier - only ever docked in this port aboard a cargo ship, so no cruise ship tours.

 

Tauranga - Unfortunately, the vendor has retired - same chap that provided tours in Auckland.

 

Wellington - numerous visits, but mostly used the Ho-Ho bus, or the downtown shuttle

 

Christchurch - we booked a brilliant private tour based on docking in Lyttelton, but then got changed to Akaroa. The tour wouldn't work due to the additional distances, so we had to book shorex. Sorry, can't remember the vendor's name.

 

Dunedin - Back to Nature Tours - Royal Peninsula Tour. Again a very full tour with only 8 - 10 participants in a small van. Vastly superior to the shore-ex. We visited many more sites than the shore-ex.

 

Tasmania - DW did a shore-ex and I visited the local liferaft manufacturer, then went out for a local lunch and walked around the harbour. Enjoyed a few pints at the brewery adjacent to the berth.

 

Melbourne - Cancelled due to weather

[DTtravelers]

 

Hi.  I can help fill in some of the notes from Heidi13:  We did a land tour and cruised there in March.

 

Auckland: Waiheke wine tours.  Ferries run every half hour.  Note that there is also Waiheke Whiskey that is definitely worth seeing.  They have a great tour and a good lunch.  The Sweetwater (bourbon style) was very nice.  You can spend many extra days in Auckland and not run out of things to do.  The waterfront is beautiful.  You can even bungee jump from the Sky Tower...  or not!

 

Tauranga: Just walk to the beach and swim!  Miles of beautiful beach and not very many people.

 

Gisborne -

Climb the hill.  Excellent views of the ocean.  On the way back, don't forget to count how many logging trucks pass you by.  400 per day (that is NOT a typo).

 

Napier -

We took a shuttle to the National Aquarium of New Zealand along the shore.  We payed extra for the back scenes tour and enjoyed it.  They have about 15 small blue penguins that we watched for a lll-ooo-nnn-ggg time (my wife's favorite).  After that, we just walked back to town through the botanical garden, and then spent time wandering through town.  An excellent day you can do on your own.

 

Wellington -

Do not miss Te Papa museum.  You can easily spend hours and hours there.  One of the best museums we have ever seen.  You will get at least a taste of Maori culture.  Warning: It is HUGE.

 

Christchurch - (we got to spend 4 days here)

We spent half a day at the excellent Botanical Garden.  If you want to float the punts on the Avon river, book the day before.  We enjoyed it.  If you are into wine, do a wine tour to Waipara, but note it is an hour north of town.  The wine at Greystone was "knock your socks off" 

 

If you stop at Picton, you can arrange a wine tour of the Marlborough region.  We used Marlborough Wines Tours and only got to taste 27 different wines at 5 different wineries.  I discovered that the NZ Pinot Gris' were actually my favorite. 

 

Tasmania -

Do a tour that includes Bonorong.  You can see Devils, wombats (they had a baby that was cute as a bug's ear), and the kangaroos/wallabies will eat out of your hand (they have food bins all along the trail).  Richmond is interesting too.  Mount Wellington (if it ain't raining...)

 

Melbourne - You can do Victoria Market, Botanical Garden and Shrine of Remembrance on your own.  Trams are easy to use.  That will busy...  too much to see in a day.

 

 

Note: In an ideal world (where you have lots of time and money - okay, you can stop laughing now), you would be a able to do a land tour and the cruise.  They compliment each other beautifully with little to no overlap and you get some immersion into NZ history and a better understanding of the cultures.

 

D

[new2cruise]

Thank you DTtravelers and Heidi13!  This is really helpful!

Edited June 1 by new2cruise

[2cruisecats]

On 5/27/2024 at 3:37 PM, oskidunker said:

We would like to visit some wineries.  Since we are in Auckland for a week before the cruise, I would assume we can do this with a local tour or on our own. Any suggestions??

We did a day wine tour to Waiheke Island -- a 30 minute ferry ride from Aukland. We booked it on "a whim" when we stopped at a tourist kiosk to escape the rain while walking back from the Art Gallery.       

 

You catch a morning ferry & are picked up at the dock on the island.  ( Some tours include the ferry price while others you need to get you own ferry tickets.  Pay attention to the ferry times.)  Our tour included 4 wineries and a v nice lunch. 10 of us in a mini-van.  Waiheke Island is lovely & my DH thinks we should stay on the island for a few days next time we go to NZ.  It was our best day in Auckland.

 

There are lots of options for tours on Viator and other travel sites, we just hadn't planned on doing a wine tour in Auckland as we had a few booked for the South Island..

 

(Side note -- we had beautiful sunny weather for our tour and could see rain clouds over Aukland. On the ferry ride back we sailed into the rain. It rains a lot in Auckland)