My family of 6 (two adults and four children) took the 18 day Statendam cruise from Brisbane to Auckland. We had a very nice time on the cruise, but were somewhat disappointed that HAL's reputation for service and elegance did not live up to its reputation.
I will not go into great detail about the ports. You can read about them elsewhere, as they have been written about repeatedly. We embarked in Brisbane, traveled to Sydney (two days), Melbourne, Burnie (Tasmania), Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Picton, Bay of Islands, and disembarked in Auckland. All were amazing, but we particularly enjoyed Dunedin. I highly recommend touring with Arthur's Tours in Dunedin. He was a marvelous, gregarious, and informative host who took us to the Albatross Center, the Penguin colony, and Larnach Castle. He also took us on a nice tour of the city, including the railroad station and "steepest street in the world." Don't miss him or Dunedin.
The ship itself had just come out of drydock and was in good shape. Nothing was worn or frayed, giving the ship the look of a much newer vessel. There were some occasional minor plumbing problems - but nothing significant given the length of the cruise. On the Upper Promenade several bathrooms did not function for about half of the cruise and for this half there was a pretty terrible sewage smell on a portion of this deck. In addition, several public bathrooms on the ship reeked of urine and had dirty floors. Given the number of bathroom attendants that I spotted, this surprised me.