Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I’ve just returned from a 15-night cruise with my Mum (92). We went around New Zealand and parts of the east coast of Australia. It was my second-ever cruise and may well be my last! Why? Because despite everything else being fine, the high winds, seas and swells we encountered were NO fun. We were on a small ship (max 684 passengers), but I doubt that would’ve made a lot of difference when you’re encountering waves/swell of 6.2 metres (that’s 20+ feet for those who aren’t metric) and 50+ knot winds. The 6+ metre waves were constant for 2 to 3 days as we were crossing the Tasman Sea, but we’d started encountering bad swells after the first 2 days, with them getting bigger and stronger day after day until the Tasman crossing. After 2 days docked in Hobart, we had the Bass Strait run to do—but that was an ‘easy’ 4 m swell!

Suffice to say, many drugs were consumed, sea sickness bands were worn, and not much sleep was forthcoming. Think of bad plane turbulence where you rise up and are partly weightless, followed by being pushed down in your seat. And then the bang and shudder of the hull hitting the waves or the waves hitting the hull—whatever… Then imagine 50+ hours of that with no let up. It was discombobulating to say the least. I didn’t actually get seasick or nauseous, though I chose to leave the dining room table one night before my meal arrived as I didn’t think I could face it.

But it wasn’t all bad. The places we visited and the people we met were lovely, the daytime weather was invariably good (except crossing the Tasman), the crew were incredibly friendly and polite, while being consummate professionals. The other passengers were nice, the food was good (and way too plentiful), and the ship’s environs were perfect for the demographic (passenger ages appeared to range from 50 to 90, with the 60–75 demographic likely being the majority; the crew were mostly under 40).

We started our adventure with an overnight 7-hour flight from Perth to Auckland, boarding around 2pm and departing Auckland at 6pm. The cruise line we were on (Azamara) tends to sail at night allowing the ships to spend most days in port where we can get a taste of local life. This is a great policy.

Day 2 was spent in Tauranga, with Day 3 in Napier (both on the North Island of NZ). Because we were in the same ports as the massive Celebrity Edge ship (~3000 passengers), I wasn’t able to find any shore excursions for us to do by ourselves so we either stayed on board or caught the free shuttle from the port into town and wandered about for a bit (shore excursions organised through the ship are incredibly expensive and are often in big groups). Napier had their annual Art Deco Festival on, so the place was packed with visitors, locals in 1920s and 1930s clothing, vintage cars, etc.

We then separated from the Celebrity Edge and went on to Wellington (Day 4), while they went somewhere else. We did a half day guided tour of Wellington, before leaving at 9pm for Picton on the South Island. Cook Strait was our first introduction to swells above 2 m, and certainly not the last. After Picton (Day 5) was Christchurch (Day 6), where we did an excellent half-day guided tour of Lyttelton and Christchurch.

From there the swells just got worse. Dunedin (Day 7) was the next port of call and we did a 3.5-hour tour of the bays, beaches and some bird sanctuaries, also seeing some sea lions on the beach.

Day 8 was at sea, sailing from Dunedin around the bottom of the South Island to Milford Sound, where we spent a few hours, though we didn’t dock. By late Day 8 we were in the Tasman Sea and the swells, waves and wind just got worse. Days 9 and 10 were at sea, trying to come to terms with the never-ending movement.

7:30am on Day 11 couldn’t come soon enough—we docked at Hobart where we stayed for 2 beautiful days of calm waters and stunning weather, and a few hours with a friend of mine from years ago in Perth. We left Hobart at 8pm on Day 12, knowing that the winds etc. were going to pick up throughout the night and through Day 13, when we were at sea crossing Bass Strait and heading north to Eden, NSW. Eden (Day 14) was a delightful little town and we did a 2-hour guided nature tour there, leaving port at 2pm. (The photo below shows the damage to the paintwork on the bow done by the pounding we had crossing the Tasman Sea—they repainted it in Sydney.) The rest of Day 14 was at sea, and we pulled into Sydney Harbour at 7:30am on Day 15. Disembarkation was early on Day 16 in Sydney.