Cruise Tours in New Zealand

[HubbieO]

My wife and I are booked on the Sun Princess Sydney to New Zealand in November 2009, and I was checking out the available tours on the Princess website associated with my sailing. While tour booking is not yet available for our sailing, I noticed that they're all "available 12/1 to 3/31". Granted, that's 2008, but what about 2009? Is November too early to cruise New Zealand?

[kiwigirlcruiser]

My wife and I are booked on the Sun Princess Sydney to New Zealand in November 2009, and I was checking out the available tours on the Princess website associated with my sailing. While tour booking is not yet available for our sailing, I noticed that they're all "available 12/1 to 3/31". Granted, that's 2008, but what about 2009? Is November too early to cruise New Zealand?

 

The South Island can still be cold in November as it is the end of spring. Some days may have a bit of rain in Auckland. December the weather is more stable and by February can be very humid. March 2009 has been great, humidity gone and fine sunny days.

 

Tours I would do in Dunedin would be to see the Abatross, Olverston, stately home and Lanarch Castle. Christchurch has a hop on hop off bus. A day trip by TranzAlpine train to Greymouth through the alps is a good tour. Wellington City, Te Papa Museum, Parliament, Cable Car. Tauranga, a trip to Rotorua's geysers and mud pools. Auckland, hop on hop off bus, five attractions, War Memorial Museum, Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World with penguins, Auckland Zoo, Motat transport museum, Sky Tower or one of the many volcanoes for views.

 

Have a great trip.

[moyaroo]

My wife and I are booked on the Sun Princess Sydney to New Zealand in November 2009, and I was checking out the available tours on the Princess website associated with my sailing. While tour booking is not yet available for our sailing, I noticed that they're all "available 12/1 to 3/31". Granted, that's 2008, but what about 2009? Is November too early to cruise New Zealand?

 

We were in NZ on a cruise this past Nov. Weather was for the most part excellent (Tauranga Christchurch and Wellington were sunny and in the 70's) We did get some torrential rain n of Auckland after the cruise, but the sun came out and it was magnificent.

 

Only drawback to Nov is that the Albatross colony near Dunedin is partially closed for breeding season, but you can still see the birds from a harbour cruise.

 

From what I can tell the weather report for Dunedin is always the same mid 60 with a chance of rain :cool:

[ConnMom]

We cruised from Auckland to Sydney on the Volendam on the first cruise of the season, starting on October 24, and had weather in New Zealand that was a bit cool but otherwise good. We had no rain, except for an hour or so on a bus enroute to the Bay of Islands. The weather in Australia was warmer, especially near the Great Barrier Reef, where it reached the 90's. I think the fall is a great time to find reasonable weather in all of these locations, especially if you are adding a trip to the GBR.

In Dunedin, I would recommend visiting Nature's Wonders for a fun ride on one of their all-terrain vehicles as well as amazing views and great close up views of harbor seals and other shore animals. We booked a tour with Awesome Tours that took us there as well as Larnarch Castle, and past the Albatross Center for albatross sightings. They also included a brief city tour.

All the ports offer so much that you sometimes have to eliminate some very good options. I'd like to return to do the things we couldn't do in 35 days last fall.

[HubbieO]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

 

I guess I'm a bit concerned because of my experience on my last cruise. South America, March 2008. It was the last cruise of the season, and as it turns out, most of the penguins had left already. The days had already become so short that we couldn't see the glaciers after rounding the Cape. My upcoming cruise is early in the season, and I just wanted to know if it might be too early.

[Nancy53]

To:HubbieO

WE are on the same cruise as you for this coming November, just booked it yesterday. I started a roll call on a previous post check it out on "Roll Calls - Sun Princess".

We just got back from South America in Dec.and the weather was quite cool but we liked it being from Florida.

We saw alot of penguins and the weather around the Cape was windy and cold but we enjoyed it.:p

[Aquarians]

My wife and I are booked on the Sun Princess Sydney to New Zealand in November 2009, and I was checking out the available tours on the Princess website associated with my sailing. While tour booking is not yet available for our sailing, I noticed that they're all "available 12/1 to 3/31". Granted, that's 2008, but what about 2009? Is November too early to cruise New Zealand?

Kia ora i Rotorua,

November is springtime here (think May for northern hemisphere) so weather can be cool & variable in parts, especially in the south island of N.Z. & Tasmania. If you scroll back on this thread you can see comments on the weather. A plus for cruising in November is that it is outside the holiday season here, so holiday spots tend to be less busy.

Aquarians