Australia & New Zealand Cruise

Day 1 - Sydney

Arrive: Mon 13 January 2025 / Depart: Mon 13 January 2025 at 19:00

Sydney is a cosmopolitan, multicultural city surrounded by golden sand beaches, World Heritage areas, lush national parks and acclaimed wine regions. Sydney owes much of its splendor to its magnificent harbor. Arriving by ship provides an unequaled impression, showing off the city's famous landmarks: the dramatic white sails of the iconic Opera House and the celebrated Harbor Bridge, looming over the skyline.

Day 2 - Canberra, Australia

Arrive: Tue 14 January 2025 at 08:00 / Depart: Tue 14 January 2025 at 17:00

Located on the south coast of New South Wales where the River Clyde enters the sea, Bateman’s Bay is the closest seaport to Canberra, Australia’s capital. As such, it is a popular weekend getaway for Canberrans, a majority of whom are government employees. The town has always been associated with seafood. The town’s establishment dates to the mid-19th century when Irish immigrants started Australia’s third fish and chips shop there, which still stands today. It soon became a center for the harvesting, and later farming of oysters in the Clyde River estuary. The area is referred to as Australia’s Oyster Coast. Some 90 miles inland lies the Australian Capital Territory, and the planned city of Canberra. Canberra was built starting in 1908, as a compromise to the claims of both Sydney and Melbourne, which were vying to become the national capital. It is one of the few such separate national capital territories, which include Washington D.C and Brasilia. Located on a broad flood plain between a scattering of sub-3,000 foot peaks, Australia’s largest inland city is laid out in a hub-and-spoke design encircling Lake Burley Griffin, formed by damming several meandering creeks and named for the city’s planner. The Parliament Triangle is a wedge of the circle containing the Old and New Parliament, the Anzac Parade and the impressive Australian War Memorial. Like other designed national capitals, Canberra boasts many monuments, arts centers, museums and a pair of major universities.

Day 3 - At Sea

Day 4 - Melbourne

Arrive: Thu 16 January 2025 at 10:00 / Depart: Thu 16 January 2025 at 23:00

Located at the mouth of the Yarra River, Melbourne was founded by free settlers in 1835, 47 years after the first European settlement in Australia. Transformed rapidly into a major metropolis by the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s, Melbourne became Australia's largest and most important city, and by 1865 was the second largest city in the British Empire. Today, Melbourne is a major center of commerce, industry and cultural activity, and is consistently ranked as one of the most livable cities in the world.

Day 5 - At Sea

Day 6 - Hobart

Arrive: Sat 18 January 2025 at 08:00 / Depart: Sat 18 January 2025 at 16:00

The city’s candid, friendly character today belies its history as a penal colony. It also enjoyed a heyday as a whaling center in the 1830s. Today the wharfside warehouses of Salamanca Place are filled with shops and restaurants, and the settlers’ cottages in battery park are lovingly restored by proud owners. Tasmania maintains a lot of agricultural heritage, and enjoys a slightly sedate pace of life. See the dazzling new Museum of Old and New Art, which opened in January of 2011.

Day 7 - At Sea

Day 8 - At Sea

Day 9 - Milford Sound, New Zealand

Arrive: Tue 21 January 2025 at 06:00 / Depart: Tue 21 January 2025 at 12:00

Milford Sound is a fjord in the south west of New Zealand's South Island, off the Tasman Sea. Part of the Fjordland National Park and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage site, it has been judged one of the world's top travel destinations in an international survey. Frequently visited by rain, the mountain peaks rising from the waters of Milford Sound are often softened by mist and an air of almost flawless and overpowering mystic calm. Acclaimed as New Zealand's most famous tourist destination.

Day 9 - Fiordland National Park

Arrive: Tue 21 January 2025 / Depart: Tue 21 January 2025

New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park is the largest of the country’s 14 national parks, at 4,868 sq. mi./12,607 sq. km. Located on the southwest corner of the South Island, it was founded in 1904, to protect the natural environment for nature lovers and trekkers. It comprises a large portion of the Te Wahipounamu UNESCO World Heritage Site. The key features of the park are the mountain ranges of the Southern Alps, which rise to heights from 1,500 m/4,900 ft to over 2,500 m/8,200 ft., as well as the spectacular U-shaped glaciated fjord valleys that cut into the mountains as deeply as 25 miles from the sea. There are three major fjords that are navigable by your ships, Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound. Your exact itinerary will be determined by your captain depending on the weather and other conditions on the day. But whatever course you sail, you will be treated to spectacular waterways curving between sheer cliffs towering thousands of feet above the mirrored surface of the fjord. Depending on recent rainfall, waterfalls tumble down the rock faces from above. Many of the peaks have nicknames based on their resemblance to animals or other objects of previous observers’ imaginations. You are also likely to see seals, birds including fiordland penguins, bottlenose dolphins and possibly such other fauna as red deer or whales.

Day 10 - Oban, Stewart Island, New Zealand

Arrive: Wed 22 January 2025 at 09:00 / Depart: Wed 22 January 2025 at 17:00

You might not realize that New Zealand has a third island. It hangs beneath the South Island and is just about the last inhabited place before Antarctica. The island itself is only about four percent inhabited, and that is its attraction. It is an unspoiled piece of primeval New Zealand. Oban is a very small town, about 800 souls. The phonebook is printed on a single sheet of A4 paper!

Day 11 - Dunedin, New Zealand

Arrive: Thu 23 January 2025 at 08:00 / Depart: Thu 23 January 2025 at 17:00

Beautifully situated in a natural amphitheater at the head of a long fjord-like inlet, Dunedin was the first permanent European settlement founded in 1848. Not long afterwards gold was discovered and the province quickly became the richest and most influential town in the colony. In 1879 it was the first city outside the USA to have its own tram system, which remained in working order until 1957. It is the second city of the South Island, and home of New Zealand's first university. While Christchurch is New Zealand's most English town, Dunedin is its most Scottish. Dunedin is in fact a celtic name for Old Edinburgh. A great many distinctive and historic buildings remain from the time of its predominantly Scottish settlers and much has been done to preserve its architectural heritage.

Day 12 - Lyttelton

Arrive: Fri 24 January 2025 at 08:00 / Depart: Fri 24 January 2025 at 17:00

Although it is known as the "Garden City" because of its beautiful parks and world-renowned gardens, Christchurch is a vibrant, cosmopolitan city with exciting festivals, theatre, modern art galleries, great shopping and award-winning attractions. Named after Christ Church, a college at the University of Oxford in London, Christchurch is often described as the most English of New Zealand's cities. Located in the city center is the Christchurch Cathedral, an outstanding example of Gothic Revival architecture. Other grey-stone nineteenth century buildings, tree-lined avenues and extensive leafy parks give the city it’s elegant, English atmosphere.

Day 13 - At Sea

Day 14 - Gisborne

Arrive: Sun 26 January 2025 at 08:00 / Depart: Sun 26 January 2025 at 15:00

Gisborne is a city on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It’s known for wineries and surf beaches such as Makorori. The Tairawhiti Museum has exhibits on indigenous and colonial history, with Wyllie Cottage, an early European house, and Maori artefacts. Titirangi Reserve has lookouts and a monument to explorer James Cook. Nearby, Te Poho-o-Rawiri is a Maori meeting house with carvings of ancestral figures.

Day 15 - Tauranga

Arrive: Mon 27 January 2025 at 08:00 / Depart: Mon 27 January 2025 at 19:00

Tauranga, the principal city on the Bay of Plenty, is the largest export town in New Zealand. Its name, fittingly enough, means "resting place for canoes", as this was the landing place of some of the first Maoris to arrive in New Zealand. The 19th-century missionaries left a legacy of well-planned parks and gardens for today's residents and visitors to enjoy. Tauranga is one of New Zealand's primary kiwi fruit and orchard regions, and the gateway to the geothermal park, Rotorua.

Day 16 - Auckland

Arrive: Tue 28 January 2025 at 07:00 / Depart: Tue 28 January 2025

Auckland is one of the few cities in the world to have harbors on two separate bodies of water. The central part of urban Auckland covers a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbor on the Tasman Sea, and the Waitemata Harbor on the Pacific Ocean. In addition, Auckland's diverse geography and warm, humid climate has inspired a lifestyle regularly ranked in the world's top ten. A half hour drive from the city there is an abundance of activities: sailing to a secluded island, trekking through the rainforest, picnicking on a volcano, sampling wines at a vineyard or exploring a black sand beach.