We've never been a family for going "away" at Christmas. In fact, I don't have any memories of being anywhere other than home for Christmas growing up. As adults, it turns out it didn't take much to drag some of the family away from decades of Christmas normalcy and try something new. A cruise to New Zealand!
Embarkation on Radiance of the Seas was in Auckland on 16 Decembers.
The actual embarkation process was pretty smooth. They told everyone cabins would be ready around 1:30pm, but an announcement was made to say that they would take a little longer. Ended up being closer to 2pm before we could get in. Luggage was another issue. Mine took about 8 hours between check in and delivery.
Our first stop was Tauranga. As would be the way for almost every port in NZ, you need to catch a bus for a short distance after getting off the ship. This is a result of the ports all being operational. In fact, there were almost no ports that I can recall where you were not greeted with this as a view from your stateroom on arrival.
At Tauranga I decided to take a ship excursion to nearby Rotorua to see the geysers. I remembered doing an assignment on them at school and cutting up pictures from the encyclopedia and was keen to finally see them for myself! The cultural center, which was part of the tour, also included some great discussions on Maori history and culture. The geysers were will worth the trip.
Day 3 was the small art deco town of Napier. It was a truly beautiful spot.
For the most part I spent the morning wandering around on my own and exploring and checking out the aquarium. There were tour operators all lined up outside the information center (or i-site as they call them in NZ) and in the afternoon we jumped on a bus for a short trip around the area to try local fresh fruit, chocolate and honey. We also had a trip up a local peak to get a better view of the region.
Day 4 was Wellington. Again, we were bused into the city. I decided to take the day off from site seeing and instead completed my Christmas shopping and caught up with some friend who live in the city.
On day 5 we were in Picton. We had opted for a one of the ship tours - the Cloudy Bay Winery and lunch tour. This tour was quite pricey but well worth it. it was a lovely small group tour. our first stop was to Cloudy Bay winery for some wine tasting. Their wines are some of my favorites, so i was looking forward to this!
We then headed up to Bancroft Estate for lunch. The view from lunch was spectacular. The food, and the matching wines were also fantastic.
On day 6 we headed to the small port of Akaroa. Most people seemed to head into Christchurch from here, but I decided to explore the small town. This was a tender port, which was a little frustrating as you couldn't 'book' your tender, you just had to line up in the morning and hope for the best. The rest of my group had gone on tours, so getting a solo tender ticket made life easier (I was put on the next available boat - others in line with me were getting numbers that were up to 2 hours wait).
This town was so pretty.
I highly recommend having fish and chips on the beach at lunch! It was lovely and relaxing. One of the major sites in town is The Giant House. I was blown away by the amount of work that had been put into the artwork and grounds.
It was in an amazing spot up on the hill overlooking town as well.
Day 7 was Dunedin. We were all a little worried about this port. Ovation of the Seas and her 4000+ passengers were due to dock in town the same day as us. Knowing Dunedin was a small town we were a little worried about it being over run. Unfortunately for those on Ovation, they were delayed due to bad weather and were forced to cancel to Port.
The actual port is in another town. The shuttle bus ticket for Dunedin was $15 for the day. It was fine getting to Dunedin, but it was miserable trying to get back to the ship. I was in a line of several hundred people trying to get back on a bus about an hour and a half before all aboard. i can't imagine how much worse that would have been with the Ovation passengers.
We did the number one tourist thing in town - the Cadbury factory tour! We we lucky we booked in advance as they were turning people away due to being full for the day. The shop in the factory though was NUTS. pretty much the entire crew of Radiance were in there buying hundreds of dollars worth of chocolate each. I've never seen anything like it.
Dunedin was our final port. The following day we were treated to a day of scenic cruising through some of the spectacular fjords on the south island. this included the famous Milford Sound.
The weather was perfect for it, and we were able to spend almost all day on deck enjoying the views.
After that, it was two sea days to get us back to Sydney. It was nice to wake up to this view on Boxing Day.
For the most part the food on the ship was pretty good.
The main Christmas meal was done on Christmas Eve, which was a little strange for us - as we usually celebrate with lunch on Christmas Day. The meal in the main dining room on Christmas Eve was however amazing. This turkey dish was the best thing I ate the entire cruise.
They also had Christmas crackers on the table at dinner. It was kinda amusing - you could pick the tables of Australians and Kiwis - we were the ones who had hats firmly affixed before dinner. All other nationalities were looking at us like we were nuts. Some traditions die hard!
The whole ship was decked out for the season.
There were tree lightnings, carols, balloon drops and even a visit from Santa (who had a gift for each passenger under 17). Under the tree there were even some special towel animals.
The different departments on the ship also had a competition to design a Christmas Tree in the theme of their area. I was a big fan of the entry from Housekeeping.
All in all, not a bad way to spend Christmas. There were a few small frustrations. On the first of three sea days they were running out of things in the bars and coffee shop, which you would have thought they could have stocked up on in port anytime in the previous seven days knowing we had three sea days coming up. I wasn't as bored as I thought I would be at sea for three days straight. I found a lot of things to do - movies, bingo, trivia, even the egg drop contest was highly entertaining!
We were really lucky weather wise. Every port the weather was stunning, and we had smooth sailing for a lot of it. It did get rough a few nights, but we were tucked up in bed by this point, so the impact was minimal. We did have an issue on a sea day where the ship needed a medical evacuation and we were out of helicopter reach so we were at full speed in rough-ish seas. That was unpleasant, but nobody was complaining given the circumstances.
Embarkation on Radiance of the Seas was in Auckland on 16 Decembers.
The actual embarkation process was pretty smooth. They told everyone cabins would be ready around 1:30pm, but an announcement was made to say that they would take a little longer. Ended up being closer to 2pm before we could get in. Luggage was another issue. Mine took about 8 hours between check in and delivery.
At Tauranga I decided to take a ship excursion to nearby Rotorua to see the geysers. I remembered doing an assignment on them at school and cutting up pictures from the encyclopedia and was keen to finally see them for myself! The cultural center, which was part of the tour, also included some great discussions on Maori history and culture. The geysers were will worth the trip.
Day 3 was the small art deco town of Napier. It was a truly beautiful spot.
Day 4 was Wellington. Again, we were bused into the city. I decided to take the day off from site seeing and instead completed my Christmas shopping and caught up with some friend who live in the city.
On day 5 we were in Picton. We had opted for a one of the ship tours - the Cloudy Bay Winery and lunch tour. This tour was quite pricey but well worth it. it was a lovely small group tour. our first stop was to Cloudy Bay winery for some wine tasting. Their wines are some of my favorites, so i was looking forward to this!
This town was so pretty.
I highly recommend having fish and chips on the beach at lunch! It was lovely and relaxing. One of the major sites in town is The Giant House. I was blown away by the amount of work that had been put into the artwork and grounds.
We did the number one tourist thing in town - the Cadbury factory tour! We we lucky we booked in advance as they were turning people away due to being full for the day. The shop in the factory though was NUTS. pretty much the entire crew of Radiance were in there buying hundreds of dollars worth of chocolate each. I've never seen anything like it.
Dunedin was our final port. The following day we were treated to a day of scenic cruising through some of the spectacular fjords on the south island. this included the famous Milford Sound.
They also had Christmas crackers on the table at dinner. It was kinda amusing - you could pick the tables of Australians and Kiwis - we were the ones who had hats firmly affixed before dinner. All other nationalities were looking at us like we were nuts. Some traditions die hard!
There were tree lightnings, carols, balloon drops and even a visit from Santa (who had a gift for each passenger under 17). Under the tree there were even some special towel animals.
We were really lucky weather wise. Every port the weather was stunning, and we had smooth sailing for a lot of it. It did get rough a few nights, but we were tucked up in bed by this point, so the impact was minimal. We did have an issue on a sea day where the ship needed a medical evacuation and we were out of helicopter reach so we were at full speed in rough-ish seas. That was unpleasant, but nobody was complaining given the circumstances.
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