Land Of Adventure

We’ve all heard about cruises to the islands of the South Pacific, but the emerging boom is in New Zealand, where culture and the great outdoors are luring a new breed of travellers.

- Michelle Endacott

There’s a myth that holidays in New Zealand are all about beanies, snow and skiing. So it comes as some surprise that our group finds itself wading through a sparkling Gold Coast-warm ocean to marvel at a 180kg stingray named Tara.

Clad in unflattering rubber overalls with built-in booties for protection, we meet a Crocodile Dundee look-alike named Dean Savage who coaxes in a school of wild stingrays with chunks of barracuda. The rays rest on our feet like tame cats as we gently stroke them. Dean grew up by this beach in Gisborne, on NZ’s east coast, and tells us the marine creatures enjoy the sensation of humans buffing away the sea slime.

Our group has joined the adventure from the Emerald Princess ship moored nearby. In just five years, the number of cruises circling New Zealand has doubled and it’s easy to see why. The country is tailor-made for a high-seas adventure. The ship travels through each night and, just as you’re polishing off a croissant, muesli and coffee (free continental breakfast, delivered to your cabin balcony, is an insider secret), she glides into the next port, where breakfast TV is replaced by tugboats pushing the superliner into place, or a rousing welcome from a Maori haka or a lone bagpiper or – in one heart-stopping moment in Akaroa Harbour – a pod of Hector’s dolphins, the world’s smallest and rarest dolphins.

Most cruises start or finish in Auckland’s bustling harbour, but the real joy is in the pretty ports along the way. As the cruising boom is relatively recent, nothing feels too tourist-trappy, and local residents seem genuinely thrilled that new people and new money is flowing in – our ship’s arrival into Poverty Bay is even trumpeted on the front page of the local The Gisborne Herald, alongside a photo of local kids jumping off the wharf to greet us.