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Tauranga (Rotorua) New Zealand

mmcipdn

By mmcipdn,
in Pacific Islands, All

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mmcipdn

mmcipdn

Posted
Posted

Hi All,

 

Just back from 44 day on the Hal volendam from la to Sydney and then 11 day rhapsody of seas r/t Sydney..

Any port questions or tour questions or ship questions , just ask. visited Hawaii, Pago Pago,

Apia, Suva, Port-Vila, Ilse DE pins, Noumea, Bay of Islands, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, Auckland, Picton, Christchurch, Dunedin, Burnie, Melbourne, Sydney, ... Hamilton Island, Cooktown, Cairns, Port Douglas, Brisbane, I can tell of our experiences for some tours.. we did all private tours, except on to the barrier reef was a ship tour from Hamilton Island.

One stop you will surely enjoy is Tauranga,,, we took a two day tour with a local Maori Indian.. he operates a company called indigenous trails and his name is Des Harris.. we found him to be an expert on the area..and was very interested in our desire to see the unuasual..also in Napier we had a great tour with John Hanson of Hawks bay tours, another very knowledgeable guy. if you all have any questions , just holler

Paul

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Murrumba

Murrumba

Posted
Posted
Hi All,

 

Just back from 44 day on the Hal volendam from la to Sydney and then 11 day rhapsody of seas r/t Sydney..

Any port questions or tour questions or ship questions , just ask. visited Hawaii, Pago Pago,

Apia, Suva, Port-Vila, Ilse DE pins, Noumea, Bay of Islands, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, Auckland, Picton, Christchurch, Dunedin, Burnie, Melbourne, Sydney, ... Hamilton Island, Cooktown, Cairns, Port Douglas, Brisbane, I can tell of our experiences for some tours.. we did all private tours, except on to the barrier reef was a ship tour from Hamilton Island.

One stop you will surely enjoy is Tauranga,,, we took a two day tour with a local Maori Indian.. he operates a company called indigenous trails and his name is Des Harris.. we found him to be an expert on the area..and was very interested in our desire to see the unuasual..also in Napier we had a great tour with John Hanson of Hawks bay tours, another very knowledgeable guy. if you all have any questions , just holler

Paul

Hi - we have just been on the rhapsody for 13 days to South Pacific and in the New Year are off to New Zealand on her. We have booked indigenous tours for Rotarua tour but were interested in the Bay of Islands - can you recommend something? thanks

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mmcipdn

mmcipdn

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Hi - we have just been on the rhapsody for 13 days to South Pacific and in the New Year are off to New Zealand on her. We have booked indigenous tours for Rotarua tour but were interested in the Bay of Islands - can you recommend something? thanks

 

Ask Des at Indigenous to set you up with Honie's Tour in Bay of Islands..you will really get a history lesson and enjoy Honie and his family..here's a link to some photo's of our experiencee

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="288" height="192" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fmmcpdn%2Falbumid%2F5274642117053684113%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>

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mmcipdn

mmcipdn

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Hi - we have just been on the rhapsody for 13 days to South Pacific and in the New Year are off to New Zealand on her. We have booked indigenous tours for Rotarua tour but were interested in the Bay of Islands - can you recommend something? thanks

Please tell Des hello from Paul and Glenda.. Thanks

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  • 1 month later...
Murrumba

Murrumba

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Please tell Des hello from Paul and Glenda.. Thanks

 

Sorry to have taken so long to reply to your replies - accept my apologies = thanks - We have booked with Des for Tauranga to Roturoa and today I booked the Bay of Islands with him (not Hone) - wanted to go to the Woods and this tour was a little longer. My friends from Maine are joining us, and thought it would be safer to go where they did not have to get in a canoe without their knowledge:rolleyes:. Should be a good time. Des called on the telephone today and said hello from you and that you recommended this tour. thank you - 7 days to go until boarding our ship now - Rhapsody of the Seas. Judy

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mmcipdn

mmcipdn

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Sorry to have taken so long to reply to your replies - accept my apologies = thanks - We have booked with Des for Tauranga to Roturoa and today I booked the Bay of Islands with him (not Hone) - wanted to go to the Woods and this tour was a little longer. My friends from Maine are joining us, and thought it would be safer to go where they did not have to get in a canoe without their knowledge:rolleyes:. Should be a good time. Des called on the telephone today and said hello from you and that you recommended this tour. thank you - 7 days to go until boarding our ship now - Rhapsody of the Seas. Judy

have a great time,,,

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  • 4 weeks later...
Kween Karen

Kween Karen

Posted
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I am interested in tours in many of the same places that you visited on your trip. I am doing lots of reading and have an IDEA of what I would like to do....and most often either the ships offerings don't quite mesh OR they are very expensive.

These are the places I will be visiting that were on your list: Hawaii (Hilo, Kona, Honolulu), PagoPago, Apia, Suva, Port Vila, Bay of Islands, Tauranga, Napia, Wellington, Aukland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns and Brisbane.

I have never arranged ahead of time with private tour operators before so I am really looking for recommendations.

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Kween Karen

Kween Karen

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Thanks Mike............I am checking out your website.

I am going to keep a website or blog or something when I am on my Grand Voyage. Question: What site did you use to get your personal website??? Did you keep it going while you were gone or do it all when you got home?

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Kween Karen

Kween Karen

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Mike,

Thanks for your reply. I am going to try to keep a site going while I am on my trip.............I will be cruising for 67 days and my kids and friends would like to follow along. It will just be a brief description of each day with a few pics so they can see what I am doing. I am going to sign up for my website in a few days so I can practice!!

 

I am reading your site right now.......and learning a lot. Thanks for all your work. I am still puzzling over whether to try to find tours that are not ship sponsored. The ship ones are SO pricey but they offer the comforting fact that the ship will wait for you if something happens!! Did you sign up for most of your "private" tours before you left home online or did you wait to find tours available on shore??

 

I appreciate all your help and advice!

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MVPinBoynton Great Review Rare

MVPinBoynton

Posted
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67 DAYS!!! :eek: My goodness, you will be gone a long time. I understand why you want to post on a site while on the cruise. I never wait to book private excursions. I booked excursions for our Feb 2010 SE Asia cruise in Nov. 2008. If you want the drivers/guides that have good reputations and are mentioned on CC, you need to book early. Trying to book something when you are at the port wastes time looking for a driver/guide, rather than seeing area. Plus, you might get a really lousy guide or one that tries to rip you off. The good guides are as concerned about getting their clients back to the ship as we are. They do this every day and are well aware of the schedules. You should go to your cruises roll call to find some else to share the cost of the excursion. It makes a private excursion very reasonable in cost.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Christine Frances

Christine Frances

Posted
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Hi Mike! Just had a look at your website as we are off on a New Zealand Cruise soon Couldn't stop reading - had to check out your Pacific Coastal and see how you made out in Vancouver & Victoria. I was born in Van but now live in Victoria I am so pleased that you and your wife liked our beautiful city! If you come back this way please let us know!

ps you will love Azamara!

 

Cheers

Christine

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MVPinBoynton Great Review Rare

MVPinBoynton

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Hi Christine,

I am so glad you enjoyed our reviews. You will just love NZ. Beautiful country with wonderful people. We did love Vancouver and Victoria. We met some wonderful people on that cruise that we are still very friendly with and are still cruising with. We enjoyed our second visit to Vancouver when we did our Alaska cruise. You are fortunate to live in such a beautiful area. We look forward to returning there again.

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  • 10 months later...
MVPinBoynton Great Review Rare

MVPinBoynton

Posted
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Will be in Tauranga off of cruise ship for 12 hours on Monday 2/15 and would like to go to Rotorua. Is renting a car/driving down there doable? Is hiring a car/driver for the day expensive?

 

Rotorua wasn't that far away. The excursion we did with a tour guide took a lot less than 12 hours.

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  • 3 weeks later...
johndon

johndon

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Paul

 

Five of us are going to Noumea, Suva,Port Denaru, Dravuni Island,Vila & Lifou on Dawn Princess out of Sydney on 1st October 2010.

Would like some advice on local tours (not ship organised tours) for these ports especially Suva, Noumea and Vila.

Many thanks

 

John

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 month later...
stanc61

stanc61

Posted
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Karen,

 

Thank you very much for sharing your grand voyage with all of us CC members, some brilliant photograhy and very candid commentary. I feel like I'm their on the Amsterdam with you.

 

I am only up to Sydney but have saved your http://dreamcruise.kweenkaren.com/ on my desktop so I can continue our journey tomorrow from my work desk at Parramatta in Sydney.

 

We are cruising from Sydney and circumnavigating NZ (13 nights) before we return to Sydney at the end of January 2011 and I'm sure your tips and that of others will help us plan what to do on our shore time.

 

I'm also keen to now do something similar with a web journal.

 

Again thank you beautiful lady.:)

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  • 3 months later...
Trend

Trend

Posted
Posted

We are going to be visiting our son in Dec. 2011 would like to take a cruise with him (29yrs.) we are trying to choose between NewZ. and Vauatu, New Caledonia cruise. Since you have done it all please give me some feedback. We will take a side trip to the G.B.reef.

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stanc61

stanc61

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We are going to be visiting our son in Dec. 2011 would like to take a cruise with him (29yrs.) we are trying to choose between NewZ. and Vauatu, New Caledonia cruise. Since you have done it all please give me some feedback. We will take a side trip to the G.B.reef.

 

Hi Trend,

 

With the Carribean closer to you the it is to Australia. I would probably give our South Pacific Islands a miss if it comes down to a choice.

 

I suugest you do a NZ cruise, the Kiwi culture is not to be missed and the country is very diverse, though similar in ways to Canada, it is uniquely different.

 

The other board under Ports of Call for Australia & New Zealand will give you a lot of information: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=77

 

Regards Stan

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