Auckland for one day post cruise

We will be on a Hal cruise from Sydney to Auckland October 25 to November 8. We plan to spend one night in Auckland after getting off the ship and flying home on Monday the 9th (6 am or 2 pm).

We are looking for suggestions of what to do from Auckland on Sunday. We like scenery, history, animals, and a tad bit of shopping. My husband definitely wants to do some things regarding LOTR. We are not interested in adventure activities or wine tasting.

The shore excursions are not posted for our cruise yet, but I have been researching possibilities from each port and it looks like a few of the things could be done from multiple ports. Since we will never be back in New Zealand, we want to do the most and best we can fit in (taking cost in to consideration, of course).

Our ports of call in New Zealand are Port Chalmers, Akaroa, Picton, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga and debarking in Auckland.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, especially for Auckland.

Thanks.

You could do Hobbiton from Auckland in a day with a rental car. It's about a 2.5 hour drive each way on good roads; you could take a detour to the Waitomo Caves too and these are about an hour from Hobbiton. The drive back to Auckland from the caves is still only about 2.5 hours. There is an Avis rental outlet in the city not too far from where the ship docks and one at the airport if you wanted to drop off there the next day.

Both of these are sure to be options on the ship and probably from Tauranga (the drive to Hobbiton is about an hour from Tauranga). But from that port I'd go to the thermal areas in Rotorua by preference.

Hobbiton is very well done. I was there a couple of weeks ago and paid for a private tour (about $450) which is not much more than twice the price of a public tour for four. This was really good value since we had a monopoly over the guide. There was a ship's tour there at the same time.

PandasRUs,

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You could do Hobbiton from Auckland in a day with a rental car. It's about a 2.5 hour drive each way on good roads; you could take a detour to the Waitomo Caves too and these are about an hour from Hobbiton. The drive back to Auckland from the caves is still only about 2.5 hours. There is an Avis rental outlet in the city not too far from where the ship docks and one at the airport if you wanted to drop off there the next day.

 

Both of these are sure to be options on the ship and probably from Tauranga (the drive to Hobbiton is about an hour from Tauranga). But from that port I'd go to the thermal areas in Rotorua by preference.

 

I second this!

If you end up on the later flight home you'll probably have time to fit in a bit of shopping as well.

What hotel have you booked? We will be there that same day.

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Thank you for the replies. We still haven't decided what to book or where. But we probably won't do the thermal areas since we have been to Yellowstone (which we really love) quite a few times and just recently. We will probably look towards something else. But it isn't completely out of the question. We still need to do more research as what to do in the ports.

We have not decided where to stay in Auckland. Any suggestions?

How far in advance do the cruise ships post the land tours?

If your DH like LOTR, then you definitely want to visit Hobbiton. It is such a great place to see. I did not care so much for any of the movies, but our visit to Hobbiton was the highlight of our trip. We spent 6 nights post cruise in NZ, 2 nights in Auckland, then on our drive down to Rotorua, we stopped at Hobbiton and bought our tickets on our own. It was so much fun to see the little town of Hobbiton. A definite place to see while in New Zealand!!

We still haven't decided what to do in Auckland after our cruise. Our ship will dock at about 7am on a Sunday morning and our flight leaves at 7pm on Monday night. So we have almost 2 full days to see as much as we can. We have decided to book Hobbiton from Tauranga so will not be doing that tour from Auckland.

Looking through sites on the internet looks like a variety of options.

We are thinking we should do some things away from the city on Sunday and maybe a walking tour or something close in to the city on Monday. Not being familiar with the city or area, does this sound reasonable? Any suggestions on what tours?

We also need to figure out how to get to the airport. And a hotel for Sunday night.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

I live in Matamata (Hobbiton) and will reassure you that doing it from Tauranga is the way to go less travel time and more time at the site.

In Auckland and the surrounds there is lot to see.

Here are links for you to check out what is available.

http://www.aucklandnz.com/

http://www.tourism.net.nz/region/auckland/attractions-and-activities

http://www.aucklandtourism.co.nz/things-to-see-do/attractions

Most hotels can book a shuttle for you to get to the airport and will store your luggage for you until you catch the shuttle.