2024 Australia and New Zealand Cruise

South America Cruise 2023
2024 Australia and New Zealand Cruise
2025 World Cruise

Legend

Boat
Bus
Train

San Diego, United States ‐ Apr 6, 2024
Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia ‐ Mar 30, 2024

This is our last stop before we return to San Diego.
Fakarava ‐ Mar 28, 2024

We rented bikes and rode them down to a small, beachside resort. The weather was sunny, very unlike the rain we have had our last two times here on this isolated atoll island.

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Papeete, Tahiti ‐ Mar 26, 2024

We spent two days in Papeete, Tahiti. It's a large city that we have been to before. It was also hot and humid We did wander around the city a bit, and had fun at a bar by the port with friends.

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Huahine ‐ Mar 25, 2024

We took a ship tour today that gave us a view of both islands, we drove in a Le Truck (see pictures), saw the small town of Faré, then we hiked up a muddy trail to see some 500 year old ruins of temples and villages. It was truly a rain forest as it alternated between hot sun and rain. We also stopped at a small museum (only 6,000 people live here), and our last stop was to see blue eye eels that were up to 7 feet long.

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Mo'orea ‐ Mar 24, 2024

Day 2 We went with new friends on a Catamaran/Snorkel trip. We stopped near the motu we went to yesterday, but the current was not as strong, so the water was clear and it was easier to navigate around the coral. We saw a huge orange/brown fish! (hoping to get pictures from someone to share). Our last stop was to see 8 Tikis that were placed underwater 25 years ago by an artist to represent the tikis that early missionaries made the locals throw into the ocean. They were trying to remove non-Chr [...]
istian culture from the island. When we sailed away from Mo'orea, we had a great rainbow send off!

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Mo'orea Day 2
Mo'orea ‐ Mar 23, 2024

Day 1 We took a shuttle boat over to a private motu (small island) just off the island of Mo'orea. The water was not as clear as Bora Bora, but the sting rays were very friendly, the sharks were present and we saw seat turtles on the way back. On the motu, we got to taste some freshly caught tuna!

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Mo'orea Day 1
Bora Bora ‐ Mar 22, 2024

We spent the day snorkeling off a boat with 8 other passengers as we circled the island. We were up close and personal with sting rays and eagle rays, black tip reef sharks, colorful coral and fish. The water we were in was so clear, it was like swimming in an aquarium. Our last stop was an amazing and long drift snorkel through some of the best coral!

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Avatiu, Rarotonga, Cook Islands ‐ Mar 20, 2024

Unfortunately, the ocean swells were too high to allow for safe tendering from the ship to the island, so the captain had to cancel our stop here. We were able to visit this island in 2017 and 2019, but not in 2022.
Nuku'alofa, Tonga ‐ Mar 18, 2024

Because we have been here three times before this visit, and because the weather was so hot and humid, we really just walked around the town and did a little shopping. We did go inside the Catholic Church. It was busy with a wedding when we were here last in 2022. There are signs that this country is still recovering from both COVID isolation and the effects of the 2022 underwater volcano and resulting tsunami.

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Bay of Islands - Paihia and Russell, New Zealand ‐ Mar 15, 2024

Bay of Islands is a beautiful bay, and it is historically significant. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed here in 1840 giving the British Crown control over New Zealand. We walked around two towns that are on oppostite sides of the bay, Paihia and Russell, connected by small ferries. It felt a lot like Cape Cod.

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Auckland ‐ Mar 14, 2024

On our second day in Auckland, Steve went with a small group to a bridal shop. Bob walked with the groom to be and one of the staff engineers to a Brewery up on Mount Eden (including a stop at an Irish Pub along the way). This gave us a chance to see more of the city. We all regrouped at the brewery for lunch. We walked back and stopped at the Auckland Art Gallery and saw a variety of New Zealand art along with a part of a traveling fashion exhibit by a Chinese designer, Guo Pei. By the time we [...]
returned to the ship, Bob clocked over 22,000 steps and 144 flights climbed. Auckland is hilly because of 50+ volcanoes.

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Auckland day 2
Auckland ‐ Mar 13, 2024

We booked a tour that took us to the west coast of New Zealand. We experienced hiking in a rain forest, hiking along a cliff looking down and the rugged coastline (scenes from The Piano), and then to Piha where we walked black sand beaches and saw the power of the ocean up close.

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Auckland day 1
Tauranga ‐ Mar 12, 2024

This was a very relaxing stop, in the resort town of Mount Maunganui. We explored a small island, Moturiki, walked along the beach and soaked in the pools at Mount Hot Pools. On the way back to the ship, we stopped at "Sea People" for cashew based ice cream!

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Napier ‐ Mar 11, 2024

Napier, a city that reinvented itself after a devastating 7.8 earthquake in 1931 by rebuilding the city almost entirely in the Art Deco style. The ship was greeted at the pier with one of the many local, vintage autos. When we got to town, we went on an hour plus tour in a 1940 Packard convertible, one of our best tours ever!

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Wellington ‐ Mar 10, 2024

Today was an opportunity to reconnect with Chris (Bob's step-sister) and her husband Bob. We met at the Te Papa (New Zealand National Museum) and went through their ANZAAC WWI exhibit. You could tell the influence Peter Jackson had on the exhibit with it's larger than life sized recreations that are incredibly lifelike. Then we went to lunch at a pub near the water and enjoyed catching up. We arrived with clouds but it turned out to be a beautiful day.
Akaroa ‐ Mar 9, 2024

This was a tender port to a town that has less than 800 residents. It was originally settled by the French, and that influence remains in the local culture, street names and cuisine. The hightlight of the day was our visit to The Giants House (an internationally acclaimed garden).
Timaru ‐ Mar 8, 2024

After a free shuttle ride into the center of Timaru, we visited the Te Ana Māori Rock Art Centre. We learned more about the historical drawings on sandstone that are found all over this part of the South Island, and the current efforts to preserve them. Then we took a hop-on hop-off bus with great commentary along the route. We stopped at the Catholic Basilica (has a dome), and then the Aigantighe Art Gallery where we fell in love with a bronze sculture exhibit by a local artist. Lunch inside [...]
a former bank, and a bit of exploring of shops before calling it a day.

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Dunedin ‐ Mar 7, 2024

Port Chalmers is a cute port town. We took a city bus from there into Dunedin (about 40 min.). We had reservations for a tour at Olveston House and arrived early enough to enjoy the grounds, greenhouse, and a garage containing a fully restored 1921 Fiat touring car. The house itself is a bit of a timecapsule. It was built in the early 1900s, only owned by one family, and left to the city of Dunedin (with all of the furniture and artwork) by the daughter when when died in 1966 at the age of 78. A [...]
fter our visit, we saw the beautiful old train station and had lunch in town. When we returned to Port Chalmers, we explored the town and its shops on our own.

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Sydney, Australia ‐ Mar 3, 2024

On our second day in Sydney, we dragged our tired bodies into town and explored more of the central parts of the city. We stopped at two amazing shopping malls in magnificent older buildings, The Strand and Queen Victoria Building before heading to Chinatown and the Hay Market. Today the weather was picture perfect, just right for a Sail Away Party. We sailed past Cunard's Queen Victoria as we left the harbor.

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Sydney day 2
Sydney ‐ Mar 2, 2024

We were on the bow of the ship as we sailed into Sydney Harbor just after dawn. The iconic Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge welcomed us, and we sailed under the bridge to where we docked in White Bay. We took a shuttle to Darling Harbor, then walked up to The Rocks where we enjoyed one of the Saturday Street Markets. We scheduled two main events for the day. First we did the Bridge Climb to the top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and back (we felt safe the whole way), a once in a lifetime experi [...]
ence. Then we went to the Gay Mardi Gras Parade (along with about 250,000 other people). The parade lasted until 11 pm. We lasted until about 10:30 pm. Fun to be there for it.

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Sydney day 1
Port Arthur ‐ Feb 29, 2024

In the mid 1800s, the Brittish decided to convert a flour mill to house prisoners from a different prison that was closing in Australia. The area grew along with the prisoner population to create a complex of about 30 buildings. It is now a National Park for it's natural and beautiful harbor, and it is a World Heritage Site to preserve a piece of important Australian history. It helps to tell the story of the inmates (as young as 9 years old, but mostly adults) who endured harsh treatment here [...]
for all levels of crime. It also tells the story of the men, women and children who lived here during the span of about 30 years.

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Hobart ‐ Feb 28, 2024

Hobart is a great little city in the south of Tasmania. We had beautiful weather for walking around, and we visited the Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery. We learned more about the years of British takeover and oppression of the Aboriginals who have occupied these lands for thousands of years. There was also a great exhibit on Antartica, as this this port is so far south. We enjoyed a lunch stop outside a pub near Battery Point, followed by some chocolates at a local chocolatier. Later in the day, [...]
we spent the evening at an outdoor jazz festival.

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Melbourne ‐ Feb 26, 2024

We explored the city on a vintage "tram" (streetcar) and visited the National Gallery Victoria which had a wonderful exhibit highlighting Aboriginal Art. Oh yeah, we also paid a visit to Costco and had hot dogs (pork) for lunch. Melbourne has about 5 million people, but it seems to be a very liveable city with lots of parks and a mix of old and new architecture, and water.

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Adelaide ‐ Feb 24, 2024

We went with new cruise friends Paul and Tammy, and Dani our Entertainment Lead from the ship to Gorge Wildlife Park. It was about an hour's drive by taxi, and while we were there we fed kangaroos and held a koala! A super fun day.

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Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island ‐ Feb 22, 2024

We were told that we would have to skip this port so that scuba divers could clean our hull out at sea in order to pass New Zealand standards for visiting. Because of wind and large swells, it was too rough for the scuba divers, so we did make to Kangaroo Island after all.

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Port Lincoln

Port Lincoln seems to find a great balance between being a fishing port, a resort town, and a vital city for residents in rural South Australia. We enjoyed walking the town, and we a bringing home a piece of Aboriginal Art.

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Albany ‐ Feb 19, 2024

Albany is well known in Australia as the town/port where Convoys of ships departed at the start of WWI, carrying thousands of men, women and horses. It now is home to a very nice museum that tells the war stories though personal accounts.

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Fremantle ‐ Feb 17, 2024

After returning from Perth, we still had time to explore some of the many 2nd hand shops AKA OP Shops.
Perth

Travelled to Perth via a 30 min commuter train ride. We walked past the Parliament House on our way to King's Park (the largest city park in the world)! Our cruise friends from 2020, Missy and John who live in Perth, met us in the park. They set up a fabulous picnic spread on the grass overlooking downtown Perth and the Swan River. We had a great time catching up with them!

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Nambung National Park ‐ Feb 16, 2024

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Fremantle

We were docked here for two days. The first morning, we explored the old town part of Freemantle. Highlights were the cookies we found, a thrift store, the Central Market, and the old Prison. Later in the day, we had a tour that took us to the sand dunes in Lancelin, where we sand boarded for the 1st time ever, then up to the Pinnacles desert Nat'l Park. There we saw thousands of pinnacles sticking up through the quartz sand, two kangaroos (one up close!), Jupiter and 4 of it's moons, our moon, [...]
and millions of starts including the Southern Cross. We were served a BBQ dinner under the stars before returning back to the ship just before midnight.

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Exmouth ‐ Feb 14, 2024

Joanie, our cruise friend from 2019, arranged a rental van which we drove to Cape Range National Park. We snorkeled in two different spots including Turquoise Bay, ranked #7 in a list of the most beautiful beaches in the world!

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Broome ‐ Feb 12, 2024

Broome is our 1st stop in the state of Western Australia. It was a major source of pearl in it's day which brought a large number of Japanese and Chinese to this area. Now it's economy is based on tourism as a jumping off spot to explore this part of the country. We enjoyed exploring Chinatown, which is really the main downtown area, found another Tommy Bahama store, and haircuts with a free beer. The weather was hot and humid! We had cold beers and french fries for lunch.

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Darwin ‐ Feb 10, 2024

Today is the Lunar New Year (Year of the Dragon). Back to Australia, after visiting Komodo Island, Indonesia. We walked from the port area which is adjacent to high rise residential, a public swimming lagoon and a private wave pool beach. The city sits up on a plateau, and only a handful of structures survived Cyclone Tracy in 1974. What they build after that devestation is a well laid out, modern city. We felt very at home when we found a Tommy Bahama Store. We did a little local shopping in st [...]
ores featuring Aboriginal Art. Although most Chinese restaurants were closed for the holiday, we did find some Chinese food in a local shopping arcade. We also stopped for some gelato for dessert. On the way back, there was an outdoor display telling about the bombing that occured in Darwin on February 19, 1942.

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Komodo Island, Indonesia ‐ Feb 7, 2024

Komodo Island is famous for being the only natural habitat of the Giant Komodo Dragons (largest lizards on Earth). A ranger led tour is required in order have permission to visit the island, because at 8-10 feet long and 300+ pounds, these carniverous creatures are considered dangerous. They only eat once a month, but when they do eat, it's a whole deer, boar, or person! The guides kept us safe with long sticks (hmm). They were amazing to see as were the fish and coral life at Pink Beach (so nam [...]
ed because the sand is a mix of white and red coral particles).

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Cairns, Australia ‐ Feb 2, 2024

Checking something off our Bucket LIst! We snorkeled at the Great Barrier Reef today. It wasn't too hot, the seas were calm, and it was like swimming in an aquarium! Trying to get some pictures from passengers who had underwater cameras, will share when we get them.

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Townsville ‐ Feb 1, 2024

We arrived in Townsville about 9 am, unsure how the city would look after taking a direct hit from a cyclone last week. The only damage we saw was some trees and tree limbs down. They obviously had a busy cleenup week! We did a few errands: Post Office, Woolworths Grocery Store then walked towards the Strand where we discovered a free museum that highlighted the wreck of the Pandora, and also the coral reefs and tropical jungles. Townsville is the largest tropical city in Australia. Then we clim [...]
bed up about 2/3 of the way up Castle Hill before the heat and humidity got to us. We then rested in A/C for lunch and chatted with some crew. A little more shopping before heading back to the ship.

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Brisbane ‐ Jan 30, 2024

We arrived in Australia, and oh what a welcome! Our cruise friends, Shelley and Nick, brought their boat up from Gold Coast to give us a fun filled day in Brisbane. After mimosas, they took us up the Brisbane River into the heart of Brisbane. The architecture, both old and new, was fascinating to see from the river perspective. Brisbane is a vibrant city with a lot of outdoor spaces including a resort style swimming lagoon along side the river. We toured the 100 year old City Hall, and then fea [...]
sted on a gourmet picnic lunch.

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Noumea, New Caledonia ‐ Jan 27, 2024

Noumea is the Capital of New Caledonia, and has the distinction of being the sunniest capital in the South Pacific. It lived up to it's reputation! The weather was fantastic. We took a water taxi over to Signal Island (10 km off shore). Signal Island was spectacular with the many shades of blue water, colorful fish and coral beds, and we got to swim with a turtle while still keeping socially distand.

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Easo, Lifu ‐ Jan 26, 2024

This is a very small, very conservative, french speaking island in New Caledonia. We enjoyed our time on the beach and in the water. Several sea turtle sights!

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Mystery Island, Vanuatu ‐ Jan 25, 2024

One of or favorite places! This tiny island is not inhabited, but locals from a nearby island boat over when a cruise ship comes to visit. It has an airfield from WWII, shacks for shade and for locals selling their wares, and even a giant sized, cannibal pot! We had a beautiful day to enjoy the blue skies, crystal clear water, brightly colored coral and tropical fish. We enjoyed snorkeling and just being in the perfect temperature waters. You have to really zoom in the map a lot to see it.

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Anelghowat
Lautoka, Fiji ‐ Jan 23, 2024

We arrived to steady rain, but it is predicted to clear up soon. We ended up having a nice lazy day onboard the ship, playing cards and relaxing by the Sea View Pool. There was a Sail Away Party as we left in the afternoon. The entertainer at the main show was a sand artist from Australia's Got Talent. He created and changed images to music using sand on a light box, projected to the large screen on stage. It was a very good show.

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Suva ‐ Jan 22, 2024

We paid a return visit to Suva, Fiji today. Rain was predicted but it never happened. We bought some fresh flowers at the open market for our cabin. Later, we walked into town and did a little shopping (fabric for future shirts). Then it was time for a Fiji Bitter (cold beer on a dive bar balcony). We stopped for a great lunch at the Grand Pacific Hotel (built in 1914). Then a stop at Thurston Gardens before returning to the ship. Another fun day!

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Apia, Samoa ‐ Jan 20, 2024

January 19th didn't exist for us because of crossing the International Dateline. We arrived to the sights and sounds of another local greeting, music and dancing on the dock. We have been here before, so we chose to go to a resort for the day, Taumeasina Island Resort. It is absolutely stunning!

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Apia, Samoa
Pago Pago, American Samoa, United States ‐ Jan 18, 2024

Today we hired a taxi and went to 2 Dollar Beach, which now costs $5. The water was crystal clear and we had a good snorkel. It seemed much cooler on the beach than the heat and humidity in town.

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Christmas Island, Kiribati ‐ Jan 14, 2024

We visited Kiritimati AKA Christmas Island. Please click on the Post "Expect the Unexpected" for more details. Besides photos, there are also some YouTube video links.

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Kiritimati Dance Show 2024

Kiritimati Music Performance 2024

Arrival in Kiritimati 2024

Kiritimati 2024 Waves

Expect the Unexpected

We were unable to stop at Fanning Island as scheduled. The Captain was able to get us to Kiritimati (pronounced "Christmas" Island). This was the first time the Volendam has stopped there. We were in...
Hilo, United States ‐ Jan 11, 2024

Our second port before we start heading south. We had fun swimming in a lagoon (but didn't see fish or turtles yet), then we went into town for some tropical flowers to add to our existing arrangement.

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Honolulu (Pier 2) ‐ Jan 9, 2024

2 620 mi

Our 1st port, 2 days in Honolulu

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Broadway Pier, United States ‐ Jan 3, 2024

Starting and ending point for our cruise.

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