This was our second cruise on the Solstice, the first was to the South Pacific. We were very wary of cruising New Zealand, as we prefer warmer climates. The weather in general was good and the seas we encountered were mostly smooth. The Solstice is a beautiful ship with very friendly staff,with plenty of activities to keep you entertained. Auckland is a beautiful city....as are the seaside towns of pahia and Russell in the bay of islands.In Tauranga we did a tour to rotarua, kiwi farm,maori traditional dances with Johns Tours, he was very informative and well priced. Our favourite was Akaroa which is a french influenced, based about 1hr from Christchurch We had a perfect day in Akaroa, lunch at the Harbar on the beachfront, followed by a jet boat ride to the heads(fantastic).

In Dunedin we had a train ride on the silver fern which was ok,we missed the longer gorge train which leaves early and takes around 5hrs .We also did a tour of Cadburys which was interesting, the weather leaving dunedin was perfect . We again had perfect weather all day sailing though the sounds, Milford sound being the most impressive of the three. The best show we saw was the Solstice the show, followed by the Diamonds, the house band was pretty good The Smart casuals. We Definitely will be back to New Zealand sometime in the near future and highly recommend the Celebrity Solstice.