Queen Mary 2 - Hawaii, Tahiti & New Zealand: Los Angeles to Sydney

Where this cruise calls, day by day

8 ports and 21 sea days over 28 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Los Angeles, CA

   United StatesDepart

   Ships berth at the World Cruise Center in San Pedro, under the green span of the Vincent Thomas Bridge and ringed by container cranes. This is a working port rather than a waterfront to stroll, and it is overwhelmingly a turnaround terminal for Mexican Riviera and Hawaii runs. Los Angeles proper starts about 25 miles inland, so most passengers meet a freeway before they meet a beach.

   • Tour the battleship USS Iowa, moored a short walk up the channel from the terminal
   • Point Fermin Lighthouse and the collapsed bluffs of Sunken City on the San Pedro headland
   • Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and the tide pools below it
   • Griffith Observatory or the Santa Monica Pier if you are willing to spend the day in traffic

   Getting ashore

   Docks at the World Cruise Center in San Pedro; there is no walkable city here, and downtown, Hollywood or Santa Monica each mean 45-75 minutes by road.

   Best months

   Year-round (Sep-Nov clearest; May-Jun often overcast on the coast)

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3 · At sea

4. Day 4 · At sea

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6 · At sea

7. Day 7 · At sea

8. Day 8 · At sea

9. Day 9

   Honolulu

   United StatesPort

   Ships dock at Pier 2 beside the Aloha Tower, which for decades was the tallest building in Hawaii and still marks the edge of downtown Honolulu. You step off into a real working capital city of office towers and Chinatown lunch counters, not a resort strip - Waikiki is a separate place three or four miles east. Most Hawaii itineraries either start here or stay overnight.

   • Pearl Harbor: the USS Arizona Memorial, the Battleship Missouri and the Bowfin submarine
   • Diamond Head crater hike, which requires an advance reservation for out-of-state visitors
   • Iolani Palace, the only royal palace on American soil, with the room where Queen Liliuokalani was imprisoned
   • Waikiki Beach and the Honolulu Museum of Art

   Getting ashore

   Docks downtown at Pier 2 by the Aloha Tower; Chinatown and the palace are walkable, Waikiki and Pearl Harbor are not.

   Best months

   Year-round (Apr-Oct driest; Dec-Apr for humpback whales offshore)

10. Day 10

    Kona (Kailua-Kona)

    United StatesPort

    Kona has no cruise pier, so every passenger comes ashore by tender onto Kailua Pier in the middle of town - and when the surf is up the call is shortened or cancelled outright, which happens often enough to plan around. Once landed you are on the dry, lava-black leeward side of the Big Island, with Alii Drive's shops and the old royal compound within a few hundred yards.

    • Hulihee Palace and Mokuaikaua Church, Hawaii's oldest Christian church, both on Alii Drive
    • Snorkelling at Kealakekua Bay by the Captain Cook monument
    • Kona coffee farm tours in the uplands around Holualoa and Captain Cook
    • Puuhonua o Honaunau, the restored place of refuge south of town

    Getting ashore

    Tender only, landing at Kailua Pier right in town; tendering is genuinely weather-dependent here and calls are sometimes dropped.

    Best months

    Year-round (Apr-Sep calmest seas for tendering; Dec-Mar swell causes the most cancellations)

11. Day 11 · At sea

12. Day 12 · At sea

13. Day 13 · At sea

14. Day 14 · At sea

15. Day 15 · At sea

16. Day 16 · At sea

17. Day 17

    Papeete

    French PolynesiaPort

    Papeete is the administrative and shipping capital of French Polynesia rather than the postcard version of it, and most Tahiti itineraries begin or end here. The quay is right in town, so you step off into traffic, gendarmes and a French-Polynesian city that works for a living. The scenery people came for is mostly on the other islands, or up in Tahiti's interior valleys.

    • Marche de Papeete, the two-storey municipal market for vanilla, monoi and pareu
    • Les roulottes, the food-truck park at Place Vaiete that fills up after dark
    • Point Venus and Matavai Bay, where Cook observed the transit of Venus
    • Musee de Tahiti et des Iles at Punaauia for Polynesian navigation and tattoo history

    Getting ashore

    Docked at the Quai d'Honneur in the middle of town; the market is about a block away and no shuttle is needed.

    Best months

    May-Oct (dry season)

18. Day 18

    Moorea

    French PolynesiaPort

    Moorea is 17km across the water from Tahiti and looks like what people imagine Tahiti will look like - two deep bays cut into a ridge of jagged green spires. Ships anchor off and tender in, usually near Opunohu or Cook's Bay. The interior is the draw as much as the lagoon here, because the road climbs high enough to look down on both bays at once.

    • Belvedere Lookout above the saddle between Cook's and Opunohu bays
    • Snorkelling with stingrays and blacktip sharks in the shallow lagoon
    • Magic Mountain 4WD track for the view over the barrier reef
    • Temae Beach, the island's best public stretch of sand

    Getting ashore

    Tender in to a small pier in Opunohu Bay near Papetoai, or occasionally into Cook's Bay; either landing is a minor village, with the main commercial strip at Maharepa a good 10-15km away, so arrange transport.

    Best months

    May-Oct (dry season)

19. Day 19 · At sea

20. Day 20 · At sea

21. Day 21 · At sea

22. Day 22 · At sea

23. Day 23

    Bay of Islands

    New ZealandPort

    Ships anchor off Waitangi in a scattered archipelago at the top of the North Island and tender in. This is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, so the day has real historical weight alongside the boating. Paihia and Russell face each other across the water, connected by a constant passenger ferry.

    • Waitangi Treaty Grounds, the meeting house and the ceremonial war canoe
    • Hole in the Rock boat trip through Motukokako island
    • Ferry over to Russell, once a lawless whaling port, now very quiet
    • Haruru Falls and the boardwalk through the mangroves

    Getting ashore

    Tender only - no wharf in the bay takes cruise ships. Ship's tours generally land at Waitangi Wharf and independents at Paihia; a free shuttle links the two, or it is a pleasant 25-minute beach walk between them.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (southern summer)

24. Day 24

    Auckland

    New ZealandPort

    Auckland berths its ships at Queens Wharf, which is the bottom of Queen Street, so the CBD begins where the terminal ends. It is a harbour city built across an old volcanic field, and the best of it is on the water rather than in the centre. Ferries leave from the terminal next door to the ship.

    • Ferry to Waiheke Island for the vineyards and Oneroa
    • Sky Tower observation deck, or the SkyWalk around the rim
    • Auckland War Memorial Museum for the Maori and Pacific collections and the daily cultural performance
    • Walk up Maungawhau/Mount Eden into the crater for the isthmus view

    Getting ashore

    Docked at Shed 10 on Queens Wharf, the primary berth, or at Princes Wharf next door; both are about five minutes' walk from Britomart and the bottom of Queen Street, with no shuttle needed.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (southern summer)

25. Day 25 · At sea

26. Day 26 · At sea

27. Day 27 · At sea

28. Day 28 · At sea

29. Day 29

    Sydney

    AustraliaArrive

    Two terminals, and which one you get changes the day completely. The Overseas Passenger Terminal sits on Circular Quay east of the Harbour Bridge, with no air-draft limit and the Opera House directly opposite the gangway. White Bay, out at Rozelle, only takes ships that fit under the bridge, and it has no train, no ferry and no bus at the gate. Berths are assigned by availability, so nobody can promise you one.

    • Sydney Opera House backstage or architectural tour
    • The Bondi to Coogee clifftop walk, or just the Bondi Beach bus
    • BridgeClimb over the Sydney Harbour Bridge
    • Ferry across to Manly or Taronga Zoo for the harbour view back

    Getting ashore

    Docked either at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, five minutes' walk from Circular Quay's trains and ferries, or at White Bay about 6km out, which is taxi or rideshare only - 15-25 minutes to the CBD.

    Best months

    Oct-Apr (southern spring to autumn)