Private tours from New Zealand Ports.

[jor0993]

Just wondering if when cruising through New Zealand, anyone has organised private tours or hired their own car and organised their own day. Or do you just stick with the Cruise Tours. :)

[martin jenkins]

when we went last xmas bay of islands no car hire unless you get to kerikeri theres plenty of local tours were the shuttle drops you off, auckland for us was too busy to hire a car we caught a ferry to devonport then jumped on local buses, tauranga we hired a car and went to rotorua whakatane etc, picton we hired a car and did the queen charlotte sound to havelock, then to blenheim to do the winery's, wellington the shuttle drops you off in town we went to te papa, beehive etc, akaroa no car hire you'd have to get to christchurch, dunedin we hired a car and did the moaraki boulders and an inland drive via middlemarch,

[MMDown Under]

We organised our own port visits -

 

Bay of Island - walked

Tauranga - local public bus

Wellington - walked

Dunedin - local public bus

 

We hired a car in Auckland, prior to our cruise, and drove via Bay of Islands to most northern point. We had previously travelled around NZ by rental car, on a number of occasions.

[Vader1111]

You will find an i-Site setup at every port, often on the wharf very close to where you disembark.

 

The i-Sites act as booking agents for the local tourist operators. It is very easy to walk off the ship and book a shore tour, for a fraction of the ship's prices.

 

Alternatively, book through the i-Site websites before you leave home. That way you won't have a problem with tours being fully booked by the time you get off the ship.

 

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

[cruiservirginia]

You might want to check-out the roll call for the Azamara Journey February 8, 2018 sailing from Sydney to Auckland. I and fellow passengers have arranged several private excursions.

[MrYellowDuck]

It's very easy to do a DIY day in NZ with a rental car from Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, and Dunedin; in all cases there's good access to the major rental companies from the port or where you'll be dropped off. Tourism is a major industry here and everywhere is set-up for those doing everything themselves via a rental vehicle. We're doing NZ again next January and I've had the rental cars booked for a while.

 

Just remember to stick to the correct side of the road (not hard for an Aussie) and to assume that a fair proportion of tourists will get very confused and so take extra care heading around blind corners.

[beezer248]

I was on the Azamara Journey in March ( Auckland- Sydney) and with the exception of Christchurch, booked private tours in all ports. Private meaning very small group- there was never more that 7 people in the group. Cruise critics was an amazing help and simply typing in the port and tours yielded some great options. Elm Wildlife Tours in Dunedin was one of the most amazing tours I have been on but included some fairly rigorous hiking to a beach. I booked with Viator, Time Unlimited, and Ship to Shore with wonderful results. It is also easy to find something once in port- there were always lots of vendors on the pier. We missed our stop in Tauranga due to high winds. I was booked with Jim Archer in Tauranga ( very highly recommended) and he was so nice about the cancellation. Some of the tours were paid online by credit card and some were paid at the time of the tour. All operators could not have been kinder or more knowledgable about New Zealand. I arrived in Auckland two days early and took the ferry to Waiheke Island then got on the hop on/off bus to visit vineyards and sightsee.