All Inclusive Christmas & New Year New Zealand cruise

Celebrity Edge departs Sydney at 5pm on 22 December and the harbour farewell sets the festive tone for the voyage ahead. The Opera House and Harbour Bridge pass on the port side as the ship heads through the Heads and south toward New Zealand. The summer solstice is just passed and the evening light lasts until almost 8pm. The Rooftop Garden, the Eden and the Fine Cut Steakhouse are all excellent companions for the first evening as Australia’s eastern coastline fades behind the stern and Fiordland is three days ahead.

A sea day in the Tasman Sea heading south toward New Zealand. Christmas Eve is tomorrow and Celebrity Edge’s festive programme will be well underway with decorations, seasonal menus and the first of the holiday entertainment. The Solarium, the Magic Carpet and the Cosmopolitan Restaurant are all excellent for a pre-Christmas sea day.

Christmas Eve at sea in the Tasman Sea and Celebrity Edge is approaching New Zealand’s South Island. The ship’s Christmas Eve programme typically includes carols, festive dining and the particular warmth of being at sea with a shared occasion ahead. The Fine Cut Steakhouse and Eden are both worth reserving for this evening. Tomorrow, the three sounds of Fiordland.

Christmas Day in Fiordland is one of the most genuinely unexpected and extraordinary ways to spend 25 December available anywhere in the world. Celebrity Edge sails through all three sounds in sequence, beginning with Milford Sound in the morning, where the 1,692-metre Mitre Peak rises directly from the water and waterfalls cascade from the cliffs above the ship. Doubtful Sound follows, three times the length of Milford and ten times the volume, its dual-layered marine ecosystem of fresh and salt water supporting fur seals and Fiordland crested penguins in concentrations visible from the deck. Dusky Sound, the largest and most complex of the three, closes the Christmas Day programme with sheer cliffs carved by dozens of waterfalls and the wildlife of seals, dolphins and the coastal birds of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage wilderness. A ship-wide Christmas lunch or dinner service runs throughout the day. This is how Celebrity Edge spends Christmas.

Dunedin is the most Scottish city outside Scotland, its Victorian and Edwardian architecture, the octagonal city centre, the Otago University campus and the particular quality of the South Island light giving it a character genuinely unlike any other New Zealand city. The Otago Peninsula, 20 kilometres from the port along the harbour’s edge, is one of the finest wildlife experiences in New Zealand: the Royal Albatross Centre at Taiaroa Head is the only mainland albatross breeding colony in the Southern Hemisphere, and the yellow-eyed penguin (hoiho) reserve and the New Zealand sea lion colony on the peninsula beaches are accessible by tour from the city. The Larnach Castle on the peninsula ridge is the only castle in New Zealand and gives the finest elevated view of the Otago Harbour and the Pacific coastline beyond.

Christchurch is the most architecturally interesting city in New Zealand, the 2011 earthquake that destroyed much of the Victorian city centre having catalysed one of the most ambitious urban rebuilding programmes in the Southern Hemisphere. The temporary Cardboard Cathedral, the new Convention Centre, the Re:START shipping container mall district and the developing East Frame precinct give the city a forward-looking energy that no other New Zealand city has. The Botanic Gardens and Hagley Park, undamaged by the earthquake, remain the finest urban green space in New Zealand. The Canterbury Museum and the Quake City exhibition in the central city give essential context for what the 185 people lost on 22 February 2011 and what the city has become in the years since.

A sea day heading north along the South Island’s east coast toward Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty. The Kaikoura Ranges are visible inland in the morning and the Cook Strait crossing to the North Island happens during the day. New Zealand’s North Island summer character, warmer and more tropical than the South Island fjords, begins to assert itself in the air temperature and the water colour. Tauranga arrives tomorrow.

Tauranga is the principal port of the Bay of Plenty and the departure point for some of the North Island’s finest natural experiences. Rotorua, 60 kilometres inland, is the geothermal heart of New Zealand, its boiling mud pools, geyser fields and Maori cultural programme making it one of the most distinctive destinations in the country. Mount Maunganui, across the harbour from the city, has a volcanic cone walking track and one of the finest surf beaches on the North Island directly below it. The Waimangu Volcanic Valley, the Waitomo glowworm caves and the Hobbiton movie set in Matamata are all accessible by day tour. Ten hours gives genuine time to reach any of these options.

The Bay of Islands is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated coastal landscapes, 144 islands scattered across a sheltered gulf with the Northland Peninsula rising behind them. The region is both historically significant — Waitangi, where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, is here — and one of the finest sailing, kayaking and dolphin-watching environments in the country. Russell, the first European settlement in New Zealand, is accessible by ferry from Paihia and gives a vivid sense of the colonial history of the bay. The Hole in the Rock at Cape Brett, accessible by boat through the islands, is one of the most photographed natural landmarks in the North Island.

New Year’s Eve in Auckland. Celebrity Edge is in the Waitemata Harbour for midnight and the fireworks display from the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere, is one of the first major New Year’s Eve celebrations in the world given New Zealand’s time zone position. The Viaduct Harbour precinct, with its waterfront restaurants, bars and the superyacht marina, is the finest New Year’s Eve location in New Zealand and is within easy reach of the ship. Auckland itself, built across an isthmus between two harbours with 48 volcanic cones within the city boundaries, rewards the full day before the evening celebrations: the Sky Tower observation deck gives a 360-degree view of both harbours and the Hauraki Gulf, Waiheke Island is 35 minutes by ferry with some of the finest wine and olive oil in New Zealand, and the Auckland War Memorial Museum gives the most comprehensive single introduction to Maori and Pacific culture available anywhere in the country.

New Year’s Day at sea in the Hauraki Gulf as Celebrity Edge heads north from Auckland and then turns east across the Tasman toward Sydney. The Gulf is calm and the morning has the particular quality of the first day of a new year at sea. The Solarium, the Rooftop Garden and a long brunch in Le Grande Bistro are all excellent ways to ease into 2028.

A second sea day crossing the Tasman as Celebrity Edge heads northwest toward the New South Wales coast. New Zealand is behind the horizon and Australia is two days ahead. The Eden restaurant, the Fine Cut Steakhouse and the Retreat pool deck are all at their most relaxed on a sea day in the middle of the Tasman in January

A final sea day and the New South Wales coastline appears to the west by the afternoon, the dramatic sandstone headlands of the mid-north coast visible in the summer light. Sydney arrives tomorrow morning. The Magic Carpet bar at sunset, a final dinner at Eden or Tuscan Grill and a relatively early night — the harbour entrance at dawn rewards those who are awake for it.

Celebrity Edge arrives in Sydney at dawn and the harbour entrance, with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge appearing as the ship passes through the Heads in the early morning light, is one of the finest arrivals in the Southern Hemisphere. Your All-Inclusive Christmas and New Year New Zealand voyage concludes here after 13 nights covering Christmas in Fiordland, the wildlife of Dunedin’s Otago Peninsula, the rebuilt city of Christchurch, Tauranga’s volcanic North Island, the Bay of Islands and New Year’s Eve in Auckland. Ask your Cruiseabout specialist about a post-cruise Sydney hotel stay before flying home.