Please take a look at this itinerary for a NZ cruise!

We are interested in going to Australia and NZ in December, 2016 to sightsee and visit family:). We were thinking of starting off with a cruise from NZ. We had RCI's Radiance 10 night Christmas cruise in mind starting off from Auckland. Would you mind taking a look at the itinerary and letting me know what you think about it?

Ports of Call:

Auckland

Tauranga

Napier

Wellington

Picot

Akaroa

Dunedin

Dusky Sound

Doubtful Sound

Milford Sound

Sydney

We'll spend a few days in Sydney and Melbourne visiting family and sightseeing.

We'll probably also spend a few days in either Hobarts or in Kangaroo island (but leaning towards Hobarts).

Sadly we will probably only get to Auckland about 1.5 days before the start of the cruise.

About us:

I'm in my mid twenties and I'm traveling with my mom who is a fairly youthful for her age (but things like kayaking are probably out). For our cruise we're mostly interested in the wildlife, scenery, history, culture and shopping. If I have the urge to do snorkelling or anything like that, I'll save that for Australia with my cousins.... Also my mom did an Alaskan cruise a couple of years ago and really loved seeing the wildlife so I think a cruise of NZ will have a lot of appeal for us.

I've done a bit of reading at the board, and I know that many people say that a land tour is the best way to see NZ… But I'm just not sure that it'll work for us. We did a few weeks of Europe on our own and she found the packing and unpacking pretty tiring and in general was lot more relaxed on our cruise without having to worry about that every couple of days. And in general the land tour seem to be a little bit out of our price range.

So please let me know what you think about the itinerary? Would you consider it a decent chance for us to get a taste of NZ? Also let me know if you have any suggestions? Or must-sees in any of the ports? There's a good chance we'll come back in the future as we have A LOT of family in Australia.

I think that is an excellent cruise of NZ from Auckland to Sydney. It is the same itinerary as we did, except for the addition of Picton.

This is the official NZ Tourism website -

http://www.newzealand.com/au/?cid=p:sem:AU:Google:Always-On:Tourism-New-Zealand-AU-Brand-Related-Exact:New-Zealand-Tourism

which will help you find places/attractions of interest.

Tauranga- I'd recommend a day trip to Rotorua.

Napier is famous for it's Art Deco buildings from when the central city was rebuilt after the 1932 earthquake.

Akaroa - you could do a dolphin watch boat trip to see the world's smallest and rarest dolphin, the Hector's dolphin.

Dunedin - you could do a day trip to the albatross sanctuary, and the Penguin Place where you will see the endangered yellow-eyed penguin.

Its Hobart .....not Hobarts :)

Looks Ok, but you can get some cruises that include Hobart as well. That may be worth havng a look at.

Hi there, I agree that your trip sounds great. Certainly think about doing the day trip from Tauranga to Rotorua it is super and you get to see the local culture.In Auckland there is a tour company that is situated right by the ship termimal that has double decker bus hop on hop off tours of Auckland city well worth the time, the Auckland Museum one of the best of all I have been to, last year we paid $49 each.I dont know about other tour companies but Princess provides shuttle bus`s into Wellington and Napier cities.Akararoa is quaint, Foirdland and Milford sound are beautiful.I have done this cruise 3 times all with princess.

Hope this helps.:)

Such great suggestions :) Thank you so much for posting your tips and advice^^