New Zealanders? Help on cruise choices?

[skyrocketneko]

My Uncle offered us a cruise from Sydney to various places in New Zealand for our wedding present. It's a 14 day cruise and just looks beautiful!  It would be in January and go to the following places.
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What do you think?  Is this a good cruise?  We were thinking of staying a few extra days in Sydney too at the end of it.
What else would be good things to do?

[Marlin]

ooooh! Some nice places you will be visiting!  Bay of Islands is beautiful - it'll be hot there that time of year. Not sure how long you get to stay in places or how you are going to get around, but Russell is pretty, and Keri Keri and Waitangi is abundant in history.

Auckland... where I live so I guess I can't see the wood for the trees - I think it's just kinda big and smelly lol    But if you get to visit places the War Memorial Museum coupled with the Winter Gardens is cool, Cornwall Park is gorgeous, Auckland Zoo is awesome, and grab a coffee in Mission Bay or St Heliers (near where I live so can vouch for lovely beaches and great view of Rangitoto - dormant - I think - volcano bang smack in the water     Devonport also is a fave for non-locals.

I haven't spent much time in Tauranga, but it's very close to 'The Mount' (Mt Maunganui) if you're into surfy beaches, and Napier's Deco era buildings are gorgeous. Check dates, but their Art Deco festival is famous and is usually over the summer.

I'll let the Southerners vouch for the South Island - but the South is where I reckon most of the beauty is. Depends again on how much time you get to venture around though - Fiordland will give you a taste of the scenery NZ is famous for - if your boats cruises the Milford Sound get your camera ready for seals and dolphins and incredibly beautiful landscapes.

And Dunedin - stunning buildings and the Taieri Gorge Railway trip I've heard is a winner, but there are members here who might help you out more 

Hope you have an awesome trip 

[Sea_Breeze]

Looks like a great cruise, not all ships stop at the smaller ports but it looks like this one will

I'm a north islander too but I live on the west coast & we get the ships VERY rarely here.

I can shed a bit of light on Wellington & Napier (Hawkes Bay region) Also if you dock on weekends into the bigger cities you'll find a majority of the shops close early (saturdays) or aren't open on sundays. So there will be limited shopping on weekends but the tours will go on

Wellington - If you like Lord of the Rings, I know some ships offer tours to places where they shot some of the movie around the Wellington region. You can visit the Weta workshop museum where they have an array of models from the movie. If you head to Te Papa (museum of NZ) you'll learn about some history & even see a REAL giant squid. You can go on a seal safari along the rocky shore but your likely to see seals in the south island anyway.  You can go up a cable car in the main city, there's a nice view of the city from there but not much else to see. Zealandia is an sanctuary in the city boundary which looks after all sorts of native birds & reptiles. They have this massive fence which keeps out cats & vermin. The birds aren't caged so it can be hard to spot them sometimes, unless they are native ducks. Wellington is a city you can walk too from the ship. The ships dock approximately 5 blocks from the centre of town about a 15 min walk. There are HEAPS of cafes & shops to saunter into if you prefer. The city is VERY compact and you can pretty much walk one end to the other non-stop in 40 mins.. Yes it is the capital of NZ isn't it grand

Napier - As Marlin said its art deco-ey, there are also heaps of vineyards, so if you like wine this place is for you. The National Aquarium of NZ is found here on the water front, lots of cafes & a real relaxed little town to wander the streets. You can also take a tour to Cape Kidnappers if you'd like to see a gannet colony, they are pretty smelly but its neat to see them all in the wild like that. I'm NOT sure if the town is walking distance from the port I mean technically its not far but I'm not familar with the security restrictions there. I used to work the cruise terminal in Wellington so I know a little more about it there

Anywhere north of Auckland is AMAZING the beaches, the weather, the wildlife. But I haven't been north for so long I don't have much to offer that isn't 20 yrs old . As for the South Island I'm embarrassed to say you will have seen more than I have by the time you finish the cruise. So I'll leave it up to the Southerners to throw their 2 c in.

You'll have a blast, there's TONS to do in Sydney too & the ship docks right near heaps of shops so you won't be bored there.

[Stormness_1]

that's MY cruise!!!! I've booked and everything! Pacific Pearl, right? I'm going in November.

[Endocat]

Southerner Here ;-)
Milford is stunning! I've spent a bit of time in Fiordland "hugging trees".  Its utterly beautiful!  But... it rains a lot and there are sandflies (small price to pay for observing such beauty).  Its a total must for anyone visiting NZ  (although some of us would like to keep it secret).  Dusky and Doubtful Sound are stunning!  Akaroa is a little town which has a lot of French heritage.  Cute and Quaint.  I've been to Dunedin, but not spent a lot of time there.  However there is some fantastic coffee to found there... yes I'm a coffee addict. 

[kaoskat]

Sounds like fun to me but I've never been there. Have fun on your cruise!

[melodys_angel]

Wow, looks like fun!

[skyrocketneko]

Stormness-1, I think that's it? Holland America?

Anyhow, we are still deciding if this is what we want to do. We've also been given the option of timeshares all around the world. I'd like to do this, but my fiancé isn't sure yet. He's going to do some research.

[Stormness_1]

We're going through P&O. We decided on this cruise because of all the great stops (now that I really look I think there's some different ones), and mostly because it fit our timing, we wanted oct/nov, as our wedding anniversary is in late October. we leave in late November though, so we can still spoil each other at home on the day I guess, LOL.

Sydney is a great city, we'll be staying a couple of days either side, my sister lives waaay out in the western 'burbs, so we'll be driving down and leaving our car there while we go, and just getting a cab or something into the Quay(the cruise terminal is there). The quay isn't too far from some serious shopping and chinatown as well, where you have paddys market (souvenirs!), so you can even scope out the quay and learn where everything is before your departure date and get some shopping in too!