Silver Moon - Sydney to Auckland

Where this cruise calls, day by day

13 ports and 2 sea days over 14 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Sydney

   AustraliaDepart
   Sydney port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
2. Day 2

   Hobart

   AustraliaPort

   Macquarie Wharf drops you a ten-minute walk from Salamanca Place, which makes Hobart one of the easiest port days in Australia. The city sits under kunanyi/Mount Wellington on the Derwent estuary, and it has an unusual amount going on for its size - a serious art museum, colonial sandstone, and the best produce in the country. If your call falls on a Saturday, the market alone justifies the day.

   • Mona, reached by the catamaran up the Derwent from Brooke Street Pier
   • Salamanca Market on Saturday mornings
   • Drive or shuttle to the kunanyi/Mount Wellington summit
   • Port Arthur historic site, about 90 minutes each way

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Macquarie Wharf, within 800m of the CBD and about 15 flat minutes from Salamanca Place - no shuttle needed, which makes this one of the best walk-off ports in Australia.

   Best months

   Dec-Feb (southern summer; Tasmania is cold outside it)

3. Day 3

   Hobart

   AustraliaPort

   Macquarie Wharf drops you a ten-minute walk from Salamanca Place, which makes Hobart one of the easiest port days in Australia. The city sits under kunanyi/Mount Wellington on the Derwent estuary, and it has an unusual amount going on for its size - a serious art museum, colonial sandstone, and the best produce in the country. If your call falls on a Saturday, the market alone justifies the day.

   • Mona, reached by the catamaran up the Derwent from Brooke Street Pier
   • Salamanca Market on Saturday mornings
   • Drive or shuttle to the kunanyi/Mount Wellington summit
   • Port Arthur historic site, about 90 minutes each way

   Getting ashore

   Docked at Macquarie Wharf, within 800m of the CBD and about 15 flat minutes from Salamanca Place - no shuttle needed, which makes this one of the best walk-off ports in Australia.

   Best months

   Dec-Feb (southern summer; Tasmania is cold outside it)

4. Day 4 · At sea

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6

   Milford Sound (Scenic Cruising)

   New ZealandPort

   Milford is the best known of the Fiordland fiords and the only one with a road to it, though ships arrive the other way, in off the Tasman Sea through an entrance so narrow that early sailors missed it repeatedly. Mitre Peak stands 1,600 metres out of the water almost at the fiord's mouth. Ships usually enter early, run to the head and turn, which takes an hour or two.

   • Mitre Peak, the classic view from the deck as the ship enters
   • Stirling Falls, which ships often nose in towards
   • Bowen Falls at the head of the fiord
   • Fur seals hauled out on the rocks near Dale Point

   Getting ashore

   No landing - a scenic transit in and back out again, best watched from the bow or an open upper deck.

   Best months

   Oct-Apr (cruise season; it rains roughly two days in three)

7. Day 7

   Doubtful Sound (Scenic Cruising)

   New ZealandPort

   Doubtful Sound is much larger than Milford and far less visited, with three long arms branching off the main fiord and no road reaching it. Cook named it because he doubted he could sail back out. It rains more here and the walls are more thickly forested, with trees clinging to bare rock until periodic tree avalanches strip whole slopes back to stone.

   • Turning into Hall Arm, where the ship stops and the engines go quiet
   • Fur seal colony on the Nee Islets near the fiord entrance
   • Bottlenose dolphin pods, resident in the fiord year-round
   • Waterfalls that appear within minutes of rainfall on the tops

   Getting ashore

   No landing - the ship enters and leaves the fiord, and the entire call is spent on deck.

   Best months

   Oct-Apr (cruise season; rain is normal in every month)

8. Day 8

   Stewart Island

   New ZealandPort

   Stewart Island - Rakiura - is New Zealand's third main island, sitting below the South Island in the path of the Southern Ocean weather. Around 85 percent of it is national park and about four hundred people live there, nearly all in Oban on Halfmoon Bay. Ships anchor and tender, and the tender is the weak link: the sea state here cancels calls without much warning.

   • Ulva Island, a predator-free sanctuary reached by water taxi, where the birds are absurdly unbothered by people
   • Kiwi spotting - Rakiura's brown kiwi forage in daylight, which is rare
   • A section of the Rakiura Track through the coastal rainforest
   • Observation Rock and the South Sea Hotel in Oban

   Getting ashore

   Tender in to the Oban wharf on Halfmoon Bay - there is no cruise berth, only a small ferry jetty; the village is at the landing, but the anchorage is exposed to southerly weather and calls are dropped often.

   Best months

   Dec-Mar (southern summer; still cold and windy)

9. Day 9

   Dunedin (Port Chalmers)

   New ZealandPort
   Dunedin (Port Chalmers) port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
10. Day 10

    Akaroa

    New ZealandPort

    Akaroa is a small harbour village inside an eroded volcanic crater on Banks Peninsula, settled by the French in 1840 - hence the Rue Lavaud street signs. It became Christchurch's cruise port by accident after the 2011 earthquake closed Lyttelton, and kept a share of the traffic. The harbour holds Hector's dolphins, the smallest and rarest marine dolphin, which is the real draw.

    • Harbour cruise to see Hector's dolphins and the little blue penguins
    • Walking the French-named streets and the old lighthouse on the foreshore
    • The Giant's House, a terraced mosaic garden above the village
    • Coach transfer to Christchurch for those who want the city

    Getting ashore

    Tender in to the long pier in the middle of the village, which is walkable end to end in a couple of hours; Christchurch is 84km and about 90 minutes each way over Banks Peninsula, which is why Akaroa works better on its own terms than as a city gateway.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (southern summer)

11. Day 11

    Wellington

    New ZealandPort

    New Zealand's capital sits in a wind tunnel at the bottom of the North Island, wrapped around a harbour with hills coming down to the water on every side. Most ships tie up at Aotea Quay, a container berth a couple of kilometres north of the centre with a shuttle laid on; a lucky few get Queens Wharf downtown. It is a compact, walkable, coffee-obsessed city once you reach it.

    • Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum, free and genuinely good
    • Wellington Cable Car up to the Botanic Garden and walk back down
    • Weta Workshop tour out at Miramar
    • Zealandia, a fenced valley sanctuary with kaka, takahe and tuatara

    Getting ashore

    Almost always docked at Aotea Quay, a working commercial berth you cannot walk out of - the shuttle loop is effectively the only way ashore, covering the 2km to downtown; the rare Queens Wharf berth is a straight walk into town.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (southern summer)

12. Day 12

    Napier

    New ZealandPort

    An earthquake flattened Napier in 1931 and the town was rebuilt over the following few years, which is why an entire small city centre is coherent 1930s Art Deco. It is a genuinely unusual thing to walk around. The port is a working breakwater terminal a few kilometres out, and Hawke's Bay's vineyards start almost immediately behind the town.

    • Art Deco walking tour around Emerson Street and Tennyson Street
    • Hawke's Bay wineries - Mission Estate, Church Road, Te Mata
    • Cape Kidnappers gannet colony by tractor-trailer along the beach
    • Te Mata Peak lookout over the plains

    Getting ashore

    Docked at Napier Port, which since the 2022 Te Whiti wharf takes very large ships; town is only about 2km but walking on the wharf is prohibited, so everyone takes the free shuttle to the drop-off where the local operators wait.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (southern summer)

13. Day 13

    Gisborne

    New ZealandPort

    Gisborne is on the East Cape, one of the first cities on earth to see each sunrise, and the spot where Cook made his first New Zealand landfall in 1769 - a meeting that went badly and is now told from both sides. Ships are often met by waka and a kapa haka welcome. It is a small working log and wine port, and its infrastructure is not built for a big ship's worth of people at once.

    • Titirangi/Kaiti Hill for the Cook monument and the view over Poverty Bay
    • Tairawhiti Museum and the Te Tairawhiti arts collection
    • Gisborne chardonnay wineries, including Millton in the Manutuke valley
    • Rere Rockslide and Rere Falls up the Wharekopae River

    Getting ashore

    Depends on size - smaller ships berth in the commercial port, while larger ones anchor and tender in to the marina beside town; either way the town is right there, but book a ship's tour or agree an hourly rate with a taxi, because local transport is thin.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (southern summer)

14. Day 14

    Tauranga

    New ZealandPort
    Tauranga port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
15. Day 15

    Auckland

    New ZealandArrive
    Auckland port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore