We sailed on the Diamond princess from Auckland on 20/1/06 and she really lived up to her name. As we had been on the Sapphire princess in March the ship's layout was identical and had no problem locating everything on the ship within 5 minutes.
Embarkation was very easy as we stayed at the Hilton and just strolled out of the lobby and onto the ship.
The ports of call in New Zealand were beautiful and well worth it and the highlight being Milford Sound, just magnificent. Dunedin was lovely with the Cadburys chocolate factory for us chocoholics and the beautiful countryside and lanarch castle.