New Zealand and it's Sub-Antarctic Islands

Itinerary

Day 1: Depart Home City

Fly from Home city to Auckland

Day 2: International Date Line

Day lost crossing the International Date Line.

Day 3: Auckland / Wellington, North Island, New Zealand

Arrive in Auckland in the morning and connect to your flight to Wellington; watch for the active volcano, Mount Ruapehu, on the North Island. In Wellington you transfer to your hotel and enjoy the afternoon at leisure. Dinner and overnight at your hotel.

Day 4: Wellington / Embark Clipper Odyssey

New Zealand’s capital is located on a scenic harbor at the southern tip of the North Island. A full-day tour showcases its many artistic, cultural, and historical treasures, including the aptly named Beehive, the round and modernistic parliament building, and the old Government Building. You also visit the Otari Plant Museum and its gardens of unique New Zealand flora, and tour the excellent Te Papa National Museum, renowned for its Maori exhibits. You board the Clipper Odyssey in the late afternoon.

Days 5-6: Marlborough Sounds

Early in the morning, as you enter Marlborough Sounds Maritime Park—sheltering hundreds of jewel-like emerald islands—you retrace the visits by explorers James Cook and Dumont D’Urville. For the next two days you explore the park by Zodiac or sail down inlets where pine-clad hills meet the indigo waters of nearly uninhabited bays, and you keep a special watch for the little blue penguin, the world’s smallest penguin species. A landing on Maud Island allows for close-up observation of native frogs and the very rare giant weta (insect), takahe (flightless bird), and New Zealand pigeons. At Ship Cove you go ashore where Captain Cook landed several times in the 1770s. At the end of your stay, you cruise Queen Charlotte Sound to enter the narrow Tory Channel. Remnants of New Zealand’s last whaling station, abandoned in 1964, stand forlornly on the shore.

Day 7: Kaikoura

Maori legends say that from this location a powerful god fished the North Island from the sea. Just off the coastal town of Kaikoura are some of the richest nutrient-filled waters of New Zealand. Marine mammals congregate year-round to feed here and in the morning you go ashore to board local whale-watching vessels operated by the Ngai Tahu, a Maori tribe with traditional rights to both land and sea. You are very likely to see sperm whales which can reach 70 feet in length. Migratory pods of orca are occasionally spotted in the area, and schools of dusky dolphin reside here. If you are lucky, you may see the rare Hector’s dolphin, unique to New Zealand. You spend the afternoon exploring the town and surrounding areas of Kaikoura.

Day 8: Christchurch

Known as “The Garden City” for its expansive parks and public gardens, Christchurch is graced with natural beauty, cultural pursuits, and laced with a fair share of 21st-century cosmopolitan style. You tour the city and its surroundings, from its towering cathedral to the elegant botanical gardens, from the Canterbury Museum with its exhibits on Antarctic exploration to the Neo-Gothic Arts Centre, a focal point for local artists. The International Antarctic Center spotlights the history of discovery, the continent’s profuse wildlife, and the research currently being conducted at the Antarctic scientific bases. You sail this evening for Dunedin, New Zealand’s oldest city.

Day 9: Dunedin

Dunedin’s 19th-century gold-mining heritage is evident in the elegant Edwardian and Victorian stone buildings and monuments gracing the city streets. In the morning you enjoy a walking tour of the charming city center, anchored by the imposing Gothic St. Paul’s Cathedral, called the Octagon. Take time to visit the galleries and shops as well as to explore the Otago Settlers Museum. After lunch on board, your ornithologist accompanies you up the Otago Peninsula to visit the world-famous northern royal albatross colony atop Taiaroa Head, located on the grounds of historic Fort Taiaroa. The northern royal albatross, one of the world’s largest seabirds, breeds here.

Day 10: At Sea

Join your naturalists on deck for incredible opportunities to view and photograph royal, shy, and Buller’s albatross, plus a host of southern ocean petrels, as you sail to Campbell Island. Your lecture series focuses on the Sub-Antarctic Islands, next on your itinerary.

Day 11: Campbell Island

The ship anchors off Campbell Island this morning, near the small New Zealand meteorological station in Perseverance Harbor. Birders and photographers will be thrilled by the close encounters with southern royal and light-mantled sooty albatross, and watch for the endemic Campbell Island cormorants, Hooker’s sea lions, and elephant seals. A wonderful landscape of tussock headlands and surf-washed isolated beaches forms the backdrop for your explorations.

Day 12: Enderby, Auckland Islands

Regarded as the most diverse of all wildlife havens fringing the great Antarctic continent, the Auckland Islands boast everything from penguins and albatross to parakeets and tomtits. The islands are a nature reserve and one of the five island groups forming New Zealand’s Sub-Antarctic World Heritage Park. Your visit allows ample time to experience the diversity and contrast of both scenery and wildlife. Experience nature walks that wind through dense chaparral shrubs and rata forests to visit nesting royal albatross. Stationed on a beach teeming with Hooker’s sea lions, you view eastern rockhopper penguins on the shore. You also await yellow-eyed penguins, one of the rarest penguins in the world, as they return to their nesting sites. Other endemic birds include the Auckland Island shag, banded dotterel, and flightless teal.

Day 13: Snares Islands

With fur seals and crested penguins lining the kelp-covered shores and Buller’s albatross soaring overhead, you board Zodiacs and cruise around the Snares Islands. A nature reserve of international importance, the islands are home to several endemic bird species such as the Snares tomtit, Snares fern bird, and the Snares crested penguin.

Day 14: Stewart & Ulva Islands

Ancient Maori legends named Stewart Island “Rakiura,” (land of the glowing sky). This peaceful island of only 480 inhabitants is ringed with golden beaches backed by dunes and thick forests which shelter an abundance of birds. The ship anchors near Halfmoon Bay for an exploration of Oban, New Zealand’s southernmost township, and New Zealand’s chief source of crayfish and blue cod. You also visit Ulva Island, a bird sanctuary and forest of rata trees, ferns, and broadleaf. One of the highlights of your visit is the chance to spot kaka, a threatened native parrot, and search for tui, bellbirds, little blue penguins, red-crowned parakeets, and saddlebacks. Later in the evening you experience the amazing sight of thousands of returning mutton birds—sooty shearwater young—which cover the skies like a black cloud of mist as they return to the shores after their daily feeding at sea.

Day 15: Dusky and Doubtful Sounds, Fiordland National Park

Fiordland World Heritage Park is renowned for its spectacular and pristine fiords full of wildlife. These narrow, twisting, mountain-lined channels, are one of the world’s most spectacular destinations. Carved by glaciers over the last two million years, most of the fiords can be reached only by an expedition ship. In Zodiacs, you cruise Dusky and Doubtful Sounds, to explore where Captain Cook anchored his ship, the Resolution, in 1773. You also keep your binoculars trained on the rocky coves to hopefully spot Fiordland crested penguins, another of the world’s rarest penguin species. On deck, search with your naturalist for bottlenose dolphins, fur seals, and little blue penguins.

Day 16: Milford Sound, Fiordland National Park / Disembark Clipper Odyssey

Rudyard Kipling described Milford Sound as the “eighth wonder of the world.” You cruise past Milford’s sheer cliff faces, which rise thousands of feet from the water’s edge, as you witness dramatic Bowen and Stirling Falls and the stunning mile-high Mitre Peak. You disembark the Clipper Odyssey and drive to Homer Tunnel to look for rock wrens amid the alpine flora. The nearly 3⁄4-mile long tunnel was completed in 1953, nearly 20 years after it was started, making Milford Sound finally accessible by road. You also walk through a primeval Fiordland beech forest and cross foot bridges over the Cleddau River and a spectacular series of waterfalls. You visit the lovely lakeside town of Te Anau for lunch before continuing to Queenstown, a beautiful little city built on the shores of Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by a majestic mountain range known as The Remarkables. Dinner and overnight at your hotel in Queenstown.

Day 17: Queenstown / Auckland / Home City

Group transfer to the airport for your independent flights to Auckland and home.

Trip Details

Ship	Clipper Odyssey (charter)
Highlights	One of the best expedition ships in operation today, Mildford Sound (dubbed the eighth wonder of the world), special sperm whale excursion, outstanding naturalists.
Trip Notes	Included: Accommodations in the hotels and on board Clipper Odyssey as outlined in the itinerary; all onboard meals; all group meals on land; group transfers; services of the expedition staff, including lectures, briefings, slide/film shows; all group activities and excursions; landing and port fees; all gratuities. Pre-extension includes all of the above.Not Included:All air transportation; excess baggage charges; airport arrival and departure taxes; transfers for independent arrivals and departures; passport and/or visa fees; travel insurance; items of a personal nature such as laundry, bar charges, alcoholic beverages, e-mail/fax/telephone charges.
Payment Policy	A deposit of 25% per person is required to confirm your reservation. Final payment is due 120 days prior to departure. Payment Methods: Deposit: credit cards are accepted (VISA, MC, AmEx, Discover). Final payment: check or wire.WE ARE UNABLE TO ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS FOR FINAL PAYMENT.

When can I go?

Start Date	Finish Date	Places Available
2008-12-05	2008-12-21	+

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