Shore excursions! Help!

[sutts]

We sail on the Stadenham in Febuary next year. It is our first cruise and we have never been to NZ or Tasmania before. My wife and I love short walks and nature. We really want to make the most of our time on land, especially in NZ. We have just discovered cruise critic and are hoping for some advice from people who have been to the following ports;

 

Burnie, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga and Auckland.

 

My wife was recommended Back to Nature tours in Dunedin and the Tranz-Alpine excursion in Christchurch. We are fortunate to have a relative in Blenheim who will meet us when we arrive in Picton.

 

Any advice on these ports would be greatly appreciated. We would prefer to avoid the ship excursions.:)

[Aussie Gal]

Burnie is in the north of Tasmania and is close to a number of places.

 

If you are active and would enjoy a great walk then I would organize for a driver to take you to Cradle Mountain which is about 90 minutes away from the port. It is one of the loveliest places on earth and there is a great walk around the lake which you would have time to do.

 

Here is a link for Burnie

 

http://www.touringtasmania.info/burnie.htm

 

Enjoy your cruise on the Statendam. HAL is a great way to cruise.

 

Jennie

[pinksuit]

Take a look @ Princess Sapphire sailing for 2/2/08. There's plenty of information in addition to a helpful poster by the name of Annato. She is from the region and has plenty of knowledge.

 

Regards and Best wishes,

PinkSuit

[Aussie Gal]

Pinksuit,

 

With all due respect to Annato, we live very close to Tasmania and have been there more times than I can count whereas Annato lives in Queensland which is quite a long way from down here.

 

In fact we are flying there next Thursday for 5 days so I think I can be of help to anyone who asks about this lovely island.

 

Jennie

[sailingkiwi]

I am from Wellington (but have lived in London for the last 18 months). There are a number of threads about things to do in Wellington already, but you might enjoy visiting one of these two parks - both of which are only 5km or so from the city centre.

 

The first is Otari-Wilton Bush, which is a garden of totally native NZ plants - here is some information about the park.

 

The second is Karori Wildlife Sanctuary - a haven for native birds, again very close to the city centre.

[sutts]

Thank you so much. The native gardens in wellington sounds appealing and Mount Cradle sounds good for walking. :)

[summernz]

If you want to stay in the city you could catch the cable car up to the botanic garden and then walk through the gardens back to the city. There is a great look out at the top of the cable car.

Also you could go for a walk around the harbor, stopping at Te Papa on the way pass. There is nothing better than going for a walk around the harbor on a sunny day, all of the Wellingtains will be out enjoying the weather.

[Annatoo]

We sail on the Stadenham in Febuary next year. It is our first cruise and we have never been to NZ or Tasmania before. My wife and I love short walks and nature. We really want to make the most of our time on land, especially in NZ. We have just discovered cruise critic and are hoping for some advice from people who have been to the following ports;

 

Burnie, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga and Auckland.

 

My wife was recommended Back to Nature tours in Dunedin and the Tranz-Alpine excursion in Christchurch. We are fortunate to have a relative in Blenheim who will meet us when we arrive in Picton.

 

Any advice on these ports would be greatly appreciated. We would prefer to avoid the ship excursions.:)

 

Good advice for Tassie and Wellington. Jennie I am KIWI born and lived there 40yrs. Also an international travel consultant in OZ :rolleyes:

Sutts...I typed a detailed reply and lost it re Auckland/Tauranga plus alternatives for Dunedin and Christchurch :mad: . You can email me for details busybev28@buzzbb.net

[Aussie Gal]

Annato,

 

I certainly wasn't referring to any knowledge you have of New Zealand but was referring to Tasmania and when it comes to Tasmania, Victoria and even Australia, I feel I have as much knowledge if not more than most about my own country.

 

Jennie

[eh2zed]

We sail on the Stadenham in Febuary next year. It is our first cruise and we have never been to NZ or Tasmania before. My wife and I love short walks and nature. We really want to make the most of our time on land, especially in NZ. We have just discovered cruise critic and are hoping for some advice from people who have been to the following ports;

 

Burnie, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga and Auckland.

 

My wife was recommended Back to Nature tours in Dunedin and the Tranz-Alpine excursion in Christchurch. We are fortunate to have a relative in Blenheim who will meet us when we arrive in Picton.

 

Any advice on these ports would be greatly appreciated. We would prefer to avoid the ship excursions.:)

Sutts we are on the November 18 Statendam sailing. I have listed all our private excursions on our Roll Call. Just go to Roll Call section of Cruise Critic. Then Holland America, Statendam, November 18

[ZSandy25]

Sutts,

Are you on the 2/16 sailing? If so join our thread on Roll Call.

 

Sandy

[sutts]

Thank you Sandy and Eh2zed,

 

I am not very good with computers but i'm starting to understand this site:o . I am sailing on that cruise Sandy and it would be great to meet others before we cruise, this is making the buid up to the cruise ever so exciting:)

 

I have looked at your private excursions eh2zed and it looks wonderful. It looks like you have a bit of experience in dealing with tour guide operators. I see you are going on the Back to Nature tour in Dunedin, i'm really looking forward to that, Chris has been great to deal with. I must say I have been quite nervous booking outside the cruise ship but feel much more confident since I have got on this site.

 

Annatoo, thank you for sparing time for me, much appreciated, I will be in touch to get some more info,

 

Thank you

[Chivalrygirl]

Delete

[pinksuit]

Thanks for that bit of information Jennie. Perhaps, we should gleam from you as well. I have a group of 15 on the 2/2 sailing. What is a must do?

 

PinkSuit

[Aussie Gal]

Pinksuit,

 

If you are coming to Melbourne then here is a link to a thread that we did earlier in the year on Melbourne.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=459427

 

I am not sure where you are going to visit in Tasmania. If you are not going to Burnie but to Hobart let me know.

 

Jennie

[jcwong]

I have just returned from a 14 day cruise on the Rhapsody of the Seas. You can book most tours if you go to the visitors Info centre. We had the most amazing tours through Supa Express Travel. Owner Des, took picked us up at Tauranga to go to Rotorua and along the way there and back we had the most wonderful experiences. Check him out on http://www.supatravelexpress.com

 

or

 

http://www.itrails.co.nz

[Missabby]

We sail on the Stadenham in Febuary next year. It is our first cruise and we have never been to NZ or Tasmania before. My wife and I love short walks and nature. We really want to make the most of our time on land, especially in NZ. We have just discovered cruise critic and are hoping for some advice from people who have been to the following ports;

 

Burnie, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga and Auckland.

 

My wife was recommended Back to Nature tours in Dunedin and the Tranz-Alpine excursion in Christchurch. We are fortunate to have a relative in Blenheim who will meet us when we arrive in Picton.

 

Any advice on these ports would be greatly appreciated. We would prefer to avoid the ship excursions.:)

sutts - we just came off the Statendam's last Auckland-Sydney cruise. Here is what we did:

 

Tauranga - we took a Mount Classics (KiwiIan on CruiseCritic) tour. For four or more folks, these private tours cost less than a ship's tour. We had a party of five in a minivan. Stop wherever/whenever you want. Gotta go to the loo? No problem! We customized our tour with Ian. Easy to work with.

 

Napier - we spent all day in town walking around.

 

Wellington - We walked up to the Botanic Gardens (the cable car was down for maintenance), walked down to a city diner for lunch, then all afternoon in Te Papa and Wellington's City and Sea museums.

 

Picton - Saw an artist's festival in town then took a ship's tour (ugh, I know!) to the Montana and Forrest wineries. However, it was a nice tour.

 

Christchurch - Took the #28 bus into town. Spent the morning exploring the Arts Centre and the afternoon in the Botanic Gardens.

 

Dunedin - Signed on with Arthur's Tours. Again, four or more is cheaper than an all-day ship's tour. We took the Otago Peninsula low road to Penguin Place, Royal Albatross visitor centre (the rest of it was closed due to breeding season), the high road back to Larnach Castle, then thru town to Baldwin Street and the Botanic Gardens. John was an absolutely fantastic tour guide - ask Arthur for him! Note: the factory portion of the Cadbury chocolate plant is closed on Sundays.

 

Both Ian and Arthur's tours picked us up right on the dock, next to the ship's tour busses.

 

Burnie - We took the ship's tour to Gunns Plains Cave and Wing's Wildlife Park - we enjoyed it. Cradle Mountain can be a crap shoot depending on the weather.

 

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