Cruising New Zealand
After three wonderful days exploring Sydney it was time to board Holland America Line MS Noordam for a two week cruise to New Zealand, ending up in Auckland. Having spent our time in Sydney overlooking the incredible Circular Quay watching cruise ships come and go we were a little disappointed that our cruise ship was not docked there but rather in the White Bay terminal , a good 20-30 minute drive out for the city centre. however the advantage of docking at White Bay is that the ship has to sail under Harbour bridge to enter and leave the city and after a smooth embarkation the sailaway from Sydney was the highlight of the day, passing under the Harbour bridge then past the magnificent Opera house, with the sun getting low in the sky it was surely one of the best city sailways we’ve ever experienced.
Not long after sailaway it was time to see what an evening on a Holland America ship was like, starting with a pre-dinner cocktail in the Crows Nest, then a delicious dinner in the main dining room and finishing off with some live music and dancing in the Rolling stone lounge. What a fabulous start to our two week cruise as we sailed southwards towards Melbourne.
Our first full day on board was a sea day so we spent the day getting to know the ship, especially enjoying the covered Lido pool on what was a sunny but rather cool day, home to our lunchtime favourite, the Dive-in food bar which you can read more abut in our Holland America Vista class Dining Guide here. After a lovely lazy day, which was very welcome after four busy days exploring all that Sydney had to offer, it was time to dress up for the Captains welcome party with free flowing bubbles, followed by a fabulous Gala dinner. For music lovers like us, evenings on Noordam are never boring with the Music Walk on deck 2 offering classical music in the Lincoln Centre Stage, piano duets in Billboard Onboard and lively dancing in the Rolling Stone Lounge.
Arriving into a rather cloudy Melbourne we left the ship and met up with a friend who kindly drove us into the city for a quick coffee and catch up by the Yarra river followed by a few hours exploring the CBD, the Lanes and the south bank before catching the tram back to the ship. Heading up to the Crows nest for the sail out through the large Port Phillip bay we followed our pre-dinner drinks with another delicious meal in the dining room and he first in-house show in the theatre - a wonderful dance extravaganza, showcasing contemporary ballet, Latin and modern dance.
Waking up to rather nicer weather the next day we had arrived at Tasmania, docked at the northern city of Burnie. We had booked a cruise ship excursion starting with a visit to Wings Wildlife Park, taking in the rolling countryside and green valleys on the coach ride along the way. With only an hour at this fabulous park we crammed in as much as we could, cuddling up to the cutest baby Tasmanian Devil and hand feeding the incredibly tame kangaroos that wander around the large enclosure on the site. Leaving Wings Wildlife Park we headed to Gunns Plains Caves where we were greeted like long lost friends by Rob and Ben who showed us around these fabulous caves. Some of the pathways in and through the caves were a little challenging but it was totally worth it to see the amazing formations, all brought to life by Ben’s wonderful stories and commentary.
Making it back to the ship about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure the next two days would be spent crossing the notorious Tasman sea to get to New Zealand. But first we had a special Valentines day dinner reservation at the Pinnacle Grill. We started the evening with a cocktail whilst we watched the Lincoln Centre quartet perform to the backdrop of BBCs Planet Earth visuals in the main theatre before a cocktail in the Pinnacle Bar and a delicious four course dinner finished off with a stand of chocolate dipped strawberries. What a wonderfully romantic evening, with delicious food and exceptional service.
After two days of thankfully smooth sailing across the Tasman Sea we arrived at the entrance to Milford Sound as the sun was rising over the mountains. With an hour and a half of scenic sailing as we transited down the fjord, we were blessed with amazing weather and it was lovely to be out on the open decks taking in the magnificent scenery. Leaving Milford Sound later that morning we headed along the coast taking in the scenery from the port side, entering Doubtful Sound for the transit along to Thompson Sound which took us back out to open sea again. We decided to enjoy the scenic sailing from the Pinnacle Grill, having a delicious leisurely lunch as we cruised along the fjord.
Later that day we headed up to the Crows Nest to listen to the informative commentary from Chris, our cruise director, as we navigated our way down Dusky sound, the only one of the three ‘sounds’ we transited which is actually a sound and not a fjord. We were very lucky to have blue skies, warm weather and relatively little wind making it possible to transit all three of the planned fjords, a rare occurrence apparently. Having eaten at lunchtime we popped to the buffet for a light dinner before heading down to the Rolling Stone lounge for the comedy set which was the perfect way to end our day, with a bit of gentle but funny Australian humour.
After three days on board the lovely MS Noordam we were excited to finally be stepping on land in New Zealand at our first port of call, Port Chalmers, the gateway for the Otago peninsula and the city of Dunedin. We decided to simply get the shuttle bus to Dunedin and explore the city. When we arrived at The Octagon, the heart of the city, we were greeted with a cacophony of bagpipe players. Apparently we had arrived just as the annual National Pipe band playing competition was on, with about a dozen bands marching through the streets playing bagpipes. What a sight (and sound 😆)
Dragging Rich for the bagpipes (which he was enjoying way too much in Helen’s opinion) we set off for the walk through the city and the gorgeous Botanical gardens to climb up to the top of the worlds steepest street, and boy what a climb - our Apple watches said we had climbed 27 flights! Having burned so many calories we decided to treat ourselves with a visit to a local chocolate factory, Ocho chocolate, a wonderful little artisan company set up by local crowd funders when Cadburys decided to leave the city. We resisted the urge to buy our body weight in gorgeous chocolate and headed back to the city centre, grabbing a bite to eat at the amazing Vogel Street Kitchen before following the Street Art Trail back to our shuttle bus. What a wonderful day in a rather unexpectedly quaint (and very Scottish feeling) city.
The sail put from Port Chalmers along the Otago Peninsula was stunning, finishing with a flock of albatross in flight at the headland - what a sight! Not long after our sail out we had to make our way down to our dinner reservation in Pinnacle Grill, this time to sample their regular menu. There the wonderful Viana greeted us with her usual lovely smile and showed us to a wonderful table for two beside the window. We started dinner with a wonderful blood orange Vepser martini before sampling the signature candied bacon clothesline starter, delicious steak main courses chocolate desserts, finishing off with a little silver plate of petit fours.
Our next destination was the much smaller port town Timaru and with departure scheduled for early afternoon we headed out as soon as we had had our breakfast on one of the first shuttle buses out of the port. Choosing to alight at the first stop we started our morning at Caroline bay with a walk along the beach then heading up to Benvenue clifftop on the coast walk to take in the elevated view of the bay and over to the other side where our ship was docked. Taking the promenade back through the parkland we left the seafront and made our way up to the town’s plazza for a stop at the lovely Coffee Culture to fuel us up for a wander around the town.
Waking up to another glorious day we were already docked in lovely little Picton on the Queen Charlotte sound and the weather was gorgeous. Picton is the gateway between the south and north islands, with ferries running 24/7 to take people, cars and cargo from one island to the other. And since it’s close to the Marlborough vineyards we guess there’s a few bottles of wine too. The pretty waterside harbour is lined with lovely gardens and are a number of cafes, perfect for a quick coffee before heading off on the tour we had booked for that day. With Picton being known for its sense of adventure we had plenty of active options, such as bike and hiking trails, but we decided that on such a gloriously sunny day we should take to the beautiful water and go sea kayaking, kayaking from Picton to various bays along the coast, even spotting some stingrays along the way. In all we kayaked over 7km from Picton where thankfully there was a minibus waiting for us at the other end so we didn’t have to kayak back.
NB. We booked this tour through Viator using a company called Wilderness Guides. Our tour guide Gina made sure we all arrived back safely 😍 (which was especially important because Chris, our fabulous cruise director and three other crew members were with us 😆).
After a fabulous day in sunny Picton we again had another stunning sail out, winding our way through the Charlotte sounds. Spending a couple of hours in the Crows Nest enjoying the scenery we eventually headed down to the restaurant for a late dinner. Sitting at our usual table with its amazing wake view, we ate our meal while watching the sun set over the stunning rolling hillside along the Sounds.
Crossing over from the South island to the North island, we arrived the next morning in New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington. This port was a last minute replacement after the Captain had to cancel our stops at Napier and Gisborne because of the devastating cyclone that had hit Hawkes Bay the week before we sailed. Despite it being a last minute stop the excursion team had worked hard to put together an array of shore excursions and we signed up for the Lord of the Rings and Weta Studio tour. Although we knew that most of Lord of the Rings had been filmed here we were amazed by how big a role this part of New Zealand plays in the movie industry in general. The tour took us to some famous Lord of the Rings filming locations on Mount Victoria before a visit to the Weta workshop for an in depth tour of their role in developing prosthetics, costumes, scenery and so much more in the making of some of the most iconic films of the last 20 years.
Having very much enjoyed an unexpected day in Wellington we then had a sea day to enjoy the ship, ending up with the Holland America signature Orange party. With many guest adorning something orange for the evening and all of the crew wearing their orange livery (and some wearing less official orange costumery) we enjoyed a fabulous evening in the Rolling Stone lounge with the band rocking the joint while Dutch treats were brought around to soak up the orange themed cocktails and drinks.
Though we were approaching the end of our cruise the following day was one we had been looking forward to the most, as we were docked in Tauranga, the destination port for a visit to Hobbiton! With all of the places on the ship’s excursions sold out we had booked independently with the wonderful Zealandier tours. After an hour on a minibus driving through the beautiful countryside of North New Zealand we arrived at the farm where the set was built. We were taken on a two hour walking tour through the village passing a plethora of hobbit holes, Bag End, Samwise Gamgee’s house, the Party tree and field and the Watermill, finishing up with a drink in the Green Dragon pub. It really was a day to remember and lived up to all of our expectations.
Since we had a late departure from Tauranga, when we arrived back we decided to take a walk around this lovely seafront town with its friendly cafes and ice cream shops busy with surfers taking part in the festival on the beach. Although the skies were looking a little overcast we decided to embark on the 3km walk around the base of Mount Muanganui but about half way round the heavens opened and it wasn’t long before we were soaked to the skin (despite our raincoats) and the ship seemed a very long way away. Finally making it back to the ship we dried ourselves off and treated ourselves to an evening in Caneletto Italian specialty restaurant. The food and service were exceptional and with so many delicious Italian dishes to choose from, we managed too make our way through three dishes for each course between us.
Our last full day on board was a sea day scenic sailing through the islands off of Auckland starting with magnificent White Island, the volcanic island which catastrophically exploded in 2019. We spent the day in the Crows nest relaxing and admiring the islands as we sailed along. During the evening the sea started to get rather choppy so the Captain decided to skip the last two islands and head inland where the seas were a little calmer so we could enjoy our last meal on board and the spectacular finale show featuring the Billboard onboard pianists and dancers with an amazing guest appearance from the Rolling Stone lounge singer who performed a lovely Witney Houston song - the perfect end to a perfect cruise.
For more information on our time in New Zealand read our North Island and South Island land tour blogs and our Exploring by land or sea article.
Thank you to Holland America Line who hosted us on this cruise and paid our cruise fare and speciality dining costs. We were not paid in any other way by Holland America Line and they had no editorial control over any of our content, either before, during our after our voyage.
If you are interested in booking a cruise with these or any other luxury cruise lines then we would recommend contacting a connoisseur at our trusted cruise partners Panache cruises - please mention that you have been referred to them through Visit With Us.
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