13-Night New Zealand CME AWAY™ Cruise

Detailed Port Descriptions

Sydney, Australia | Book a window seat for your flight to Sydney: day or night, this city sure is good-lookin’. Scratch the surface and it only gets better. After a lazy Saturday at the beach, urbane Sydneysiders have a disco nap, hit the showers and head out again. There's always a new restaurant to try, undercover bar to hunt down, hip band to check out, sports team to shout at, show to see or crazy party to attend. National parks ring the city and penetrate right into its heart. Large chunks of the harbour are still edged with bush, while parks cut their way through the skyscrapers and suburbs. Australia’s best musos, foodies, actors, stockbrokers, models, writers and architects flock to the city to make their mark, and the effect is dazzling: a hyperenergetic, ambitious marketplace of the soul, where anything goes and everything usually does. Milford Sound, New Zealand| Mountains and waterfalls abound in South Island’s Milford Sound, one of the New Zealand’s top attractions and a site of otherworldly beauty. Called the eighth wonder of the world by Rudyard Kipling, the sound (technically a fjord) is part of Fiordland National Park and the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site. Take in the surrounding water on nature on your cruise, passing by green cliffsides and plummeting waterfalls like Lady Elizabeth Bowen Falls. Doubtful, New Zealand | Also called the Sound of Silence, Doubtful Sound is an immense fjord carved out by glaciers 100,000 years ago—it’s three times longer than nearby Milford Sound. The green rainforest of the Fiorldland National Park surrounds the sound’s many twisting inlets and arms. Dusky Sound, New Zealand | Dusky Sound is beautiful and quiet; it can only be reached by air or sea. The area was once a whaling ground for southern right whales—cruising to Preservation Inlet is one of the only ways to see them, as well as humpbacks and what some consider the cutest penguin, the Fiordland Crested Penguin. Dunedin, New Zealand | A Kiwi city with a Scottish heart. Dunedin, the Gaelic name for Edinburgh, was founded in 1848 by settlers of the Free Church of Scotland, a breakaway group from the Presbyterian Church. The city's Scottish roots are still visible; you'll find New Zealand's first and only (legal) whisky distillery, a statue of Scottish poet Robert Burns, and more kilts, sporrans, and gillies than you can shake a stick at! The Scottish settlers and local Māori came together in relative peace, but this wasn't true of the European whalers who were here three decades before, as places with names such as Murdering Beach illustrate. The city boasts a distinguished architectural & cultural history, a legacy of New Zealand's 1860s gold rush. Dunedin has always had a reputation for the eccentric. Wearing no shoes and a big beard here marks a man as bohemian rather than destitute, and the residents wouldn't have it any other way. Akaroa, New Zealand | A distinctly French flair with history steeped in legend. Akaroa harbour is home to a diverse array of marine life, including rare Hector's dolphins, and visitors are lured by the area's secluded beaches and quaint boutiques. On the southern side of the peninsula, in a harbor created when the crater wall of an extinct volcano collapsed into the sea, nestles the fishing village of Akaroa (Māori for "long harbor"). Although Akaroa was chosen as the site for a French colony in 1838, the first French settlers arrived in 1840 only to find that the British had already established sovereignty over New Zealand by the Treaty of Waitangi. Less than 10 years later, the French abandoned their attempt at colonization, but the settlers remained and gradually intermarried with the local English community. Auckland, New Zealand | Auckland is called the City of Sails, and visitors flying in will see why. On the East Coast is the Waitemata Harbour—a Māori word meaning sparkling waters—which is bordered by the Hauraki Gulf, an aquatic playground peppered with small islands where many Aucklanders can be found "mucking around in boats." Not surprisingly, Auckland has some 70,000 boats. About one in four households in Auckland has a sea craft of some kind, and there are 102 beaches within an hour's drive; during the week many are quite empty. Tauranga (Rotorua), New Zealand | Tauranga port is located on the eastern Bay of Plenty, at the head of a big harbour protected by Matakana Island. Tauranga is also the cruise port to Rotorua - a major tourist travel destination (both domestically and internationally) with the region's largest industry. Rotoruais best known for its geysers and geothermal hot mud pools. The city's name - Tauranga - comes from Maori. The word is roughly translated to "sheltered anchorage". Tauranga is the centre of a vast citrus and sub tropical fruit-growing area. It is also a favourite base for deep-sea anglers. In the 1830s an Anglican mission was established in Tauranga. The community then developed as a shipping port and also a defence post against the indigenous Maori people. In 1864 it was the site of the Battle of Gate Pa during New Zealand Wars (1845 - 1872). Wellington, New Zealand | Walk 20 minutes from the cruise ship dock at Aotea Quay to Lambton Harbour and then stroll along the waterfront to the Te Papa museum, keeping your eye out for the street art sculptures along the way. There are often shuttles tot the city centre, too. Walk back through the downtown to see more of Wellington’s architecture. Bay of Islands | The Bay of Islands is an area located on the east coast of Far North District of North Island, New Zealand. Currently, it is one of the most popular sailing, fishing and tourist destinations in the country. The Bay of Islands has been renowned worldwide for its big-game fishing since in the 1930s American author Zane Grey publicised it. The Bay of Islands is 60 kilometers north-west of Whangarei city. Cape Reinga, situated at country's northern tip, is about 210 km further to the north-west. The bay itself is irregularly-shaped 16 km-wide, 260 sq.km drowned valley system and natural harbour. It is composed of 144 islands, of which the biggest is Urupukapuka, and numerous inlets and peninsulas.