Our journey from French Polynesia to Auckland, New Zealand during the 2026 Regent Seven Seas Mariner’s world cruise took us to visit multiple idylls including Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Samoa. Along the way, with a total of 19 days sailing and calling at islands, we enjoyed numerous experiences including moments with unforgettable people. Among these were the performers from the Samoa Cultural Village in Apia who, despite a heavy downpour, presented a full show in the open air as they do not have a theater. They performed various traditional numbers including the fire dance – this latter performance when the rain let up a bit! A spectacular, inspiring experience to see the Samoans would not let rain spoil the day.
Another inspiring person was Iune Uimau Mattealani Teruya, a Hawaiian lady (“here they call me June,” she said laughing). Iune served as an ambassador for her culture and came along with us to New Zealand, offering hula lessons and crafts classes and telling us about the chants and other traditions of her people. Her enthusiasm was infectious – with many passengers participating in her classes. In my case, I came away with a deep respect and appreciation for the music, dances, crafts and everything Polynesian.
Other highlights on the way to New Zealand included structures in Nouméa, New Caledonia, a territory of France, where we visited the Tjibaou Cultural Centre, a creation of architect Renzo Piano, of the Pompidou Museum in Paris fame. The Tjibaou Cultural Centre is not one building, but several, including 10 “huts” of the native Kanak people, designed with laminated wood shells that blend beautifully with the surrounding trees. A building with a museum holds various exhibits showcasing Kanak culture including totem pole-like carvings.
The second place we loved in Nouméa is a non-building: the open-air church Notre Dame du Pacifique. The local Catholic population wanted to show their devotion to the Virgin Mary but did not have the means to build a basilica or church so they did so in the way they could: creating an open-air shrine on a hill overlooking the city. A gateway with a simple sign “Notre Dame du Pacifique” decorated in white and blue greets visitors. A path overhung with iron arches and flanked with flowering bushes gives the impression of walking into a structure, but leads the way to several open air rows of benches, a simple altar and the Stations of the Cross as well as a promontory painted in bright blue and white, where a statue of Mary more than 11 feet tall stands looking down on the city. The statue can be rotated to face the congregation during Masses. People leave thank you notes and tokens of appreciation to Mary for her intercession in cures. It is a lovely, peaceful spot, that like the Piano structures, is unique, unexpected and fits right into the surroundings.
We arrived in Auckland, New Zealand and enjoyed the sight of its impressive skyline with high rises, sci-fi-like Sky Tower, and Harbor Bridge during a gorgeous sunny day. Auckland is dubbed “the City of Sails” as lots of sailboats and other craft dot its seascape (it has 235,000 registered boats). A sprawling metropolis between two harbors (Waitemata and Manukau), Auckland is on New Zealand’s North Island. A friendly, cosmopolitan city of 1.47 million inhabitants, it has attracted a large concentration of Polynesians from South Pacific islands as well as Asians. New Zealand’s largest city and a popular stop as well as an embarkation/debarkation point on Down Under itineraries, Auckland offers much to cruise passengers. We were glad we had two days here.
We took a tour to see points of interest including the Auckland Sky Tower, a 1,076-ft. tall structure in the heart of the city, which is a popular stop with cruise passengers as it is walking distance from the Queen’s Wharf where ships tie up. It is one of the highest man-made structures in the Southern Hemisphere, serves as a telecommunications tower and houses a hotel, casino, restaurants (including a revolving one), glass-fronted elevators, and observation platforms for panoramic views – visibility is nearly 50 miles from the top of the tower. On the Observation Deck, parts of the floor are glass, and you can see all the way down to the ground 610 feet below (yikes!). Visitors can take in the views of Auckland and the Hauraki Gulf from the observation platforms or opt for a walk around the outside of the tower on a platform 130 feet above the ground. Oh, and there’s more: the intrepid can bungee jump from it!
The tour also took us to a hugely popular attraction, Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium. New Zealand’s only turtle rescue center, this aquarium, located outside Auckland’s Central Business District is home to thousands of marine animals including fascinating creatures such as King crabs and jellyfish from the Southern Ocean. Its biggest draw, big in our case, is that it has the largest penguin colony in New Zealand (very apropos for visitors as New Zealand is the closest country to Antarctica). The colony is made up of adorable King and Gentoo penguins that visitors can see swimming like torpedoes in the water, and standing, walking, and resting in their icy domain.
In Auckland we also enjoyed one of the world cruise exclusive events: an after-hours visit to the imposingly white-columned Auckland Museum. There we came face-to-face with impressive full-scale artifacts from the region’s rich Maori and Polynesian heritage and an exhibition that tells the story of New Zealand’s involvement in the 20th-century world wars. As part of the special event, we had a sit-down dinner under the museum's dome with our choice of fish, a vegetarian entrée, or lamb and other delights including a variety of hors d'oeuvres during the cocktail hour, a beetroot carpaccio appetizer, and a trio of desserts: dark chocolate seashell Madeleine, vanilla apricot sphere and matcha white chocolate lychee. A string quartet entertained during the dinner (the acoustics were great under the dome!) and a troupe of Maori performers put on a show including the famous Maori Haka dance.
Other Auckland attractions we have visited on past trips include the Auckland Zoo, home to 1,400 animals of 135 species. It is a great place to get acquainted with New Zealand snakes and birds including the korora (little penguin), kereru (New Zealand pigeon) and the one everyone wants to see: the flightless brown kiwi, shy but feisty and territorial, that gave its name to the fruit (“kiwi” is also a nickname for New Zealanders). The 42-acre zoo participates in the kiwi recovery program Operation Nest Egg which takes kiwi eggs from the wild, hatches them in the zoo and puts the birds in predator-free islands until they are grown and then they release them into the wild. The zoo is on Motions Road, west of downtown Auckland, next to the Western Springs Reserve and Museum of Transport and Technology.
Some superlatives of our time in New Zealand:
- Most delightful: Seeing the Auckland skyline with its Sky Tower once again.
- Most entertaining: the Maori show during our world cruise event at the Auckland Museum.
- Most fun: Seeing the penguin colony at Kelly Tarlton’s.
Now we are anticipating our calls in Australia and particularly, our call to the "island of the gods," Bali, Indonesia, as the next segment of our world cruise unfolds.
Follow along with Georgina and Humberto:
Preparing for a World Cruise | The Adventure Begins | Amazing Americas | Crossing the Pacific | Hawaiian Islands | French Polynesia | Venturing to New Zealand | Australia | Bali
By Cruise Specialists client, Georgina Cruz
Georgina Cruz is a freelance travel writer specializing in cruises. Her work has appeared in national magazines and regional publications as well as on travel websites. She has been on more than 200 voyages including seven circumnavigations, all booked through Cruise Specialists.
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