CRUISING THE SOUTH PACIFIC - 2010

22 days incl. travel, or 20 days from Auckland to Cairns (PCR)

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Vacation Overview

Experience the best of Australia and New Zealand—by land and sea—on this in-depth Cruise & Tour vacation. Start your vacation in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, with a city tour. Then embark your Princess cruise ship and set sail for a 12-night cruise. In New Zealand, your cruise stops in Dunedin, Christchurch, and Tauranga. You also see Fiordland National Park, New Zealand’s largest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Park. Enjoy extraordinary scenic beauty as you cruise on Milford Sound and witness the sheer rock walls rising thousands of feet from the water’s depths. Then cruise to Melbourne, Australia, stopping first in Tasmania. At each stop in your cruise, choose from optional tours, excursions, and activities to give you a unique experience at each destination. Disembark in Sydney, Australia’s largest city.

In Sydney, enjoy a guided sightseeing tour including a cruise on Sydney Harbour and a guided tour of the Sydney Opera House, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visit one of Australia’s leading opal companies to learn how the beautiful gems are mined. Then fly to the Outback, where Ayers Rock and the magnificent Olgas, a geological splendor of some 30 brilliant monoliths, await. Experience an Aboriginal “Dreamtime” tour and learn about this important native culture. In Alice Springs, see how Outback locals live and learn how medical and education services are provided to those living in remote regions. A highlight of your Outback tour is the opportunity to ride a camel to watch the sunrise at Ayers Rock. Tour the base of Uluru and learn of its significance in Aboriginal “Dreamtime” mythology.

Finally, head to Cairns, gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, where you cruise aboard a catamaran to one of the Great Barrier Reef’s many tropical islands. Snorkel, take a glass-bottom boat tour, or walk through the cool rainforest. What a wonderful ending to a fantastic journey. Cherish this vacation, including Australia and New Zealand land and cruise adventures, for a lifetime!

Diamond Princess

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Things to see on your vacation: View Vacation Photo Slideshow

A Vacation Story Ayers or Uluru?

Almost everything has two names in the Outback these days. Ayers Rock, the symbol of the Red Center, is now more correctly known by its traditional Aboriginal name, Uluru. The famous monolith sprouting from the desert had been given its stolid English title in 1873 by the first European explorer to clap eyes on it in 1873, Ernest Giles, in honor of his dull British benefactor, Sir Henry Ayer. But for all of 20,000 years before that, the local inhabitants had called it Uluru (apparently after one of the ancient clans in the area) and regarded it as a sacred site.