In recent years, cruises to Australia and Asia have grown leaps-and-bounds in popularity, with Sydney becoming an extremely popular departure point for cruises that explore Australia and New Zealand.  The biggest batch of cruises scheduled to sail from Sydney are in the 11-13 night range.  Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean are the biggest providers of these cruises.

If you want to include New Zealand – and you do, you really do – then you need to allow at least 11 days for a round-trip from Sydney.  At least once a month Royal Caribbean sends one of their ships on a cruise that includes visits to Melbourne, Port Chalmers and Wellington.  If you’d rather stick to a tour of Australia’s east coast, Royal Caribbean also schedules 11-nighters  that travel north from Sydney to Brisbane, Airlie Beach, Cairns and Willis Island.

Celebrity Cruises specializes in 12-night cruises from Sydney to New Zealand.  These are one-way voyages that end in Auckland.  By eliminating the time required to travel back to Sydney, they provide a couple of extra days to explore New Zealand.  These cruises include visits to the spectacular Milford Sound, Doubtful Inlet and Dusky Sound on the southwestern end of New Zealand’s south island.

Stretch your cruise out to 13-nights and you can get a more thorough tour of New Zealand, round-trip from Sydney.  That’s enough time to travel all along New Zealand’s eastern coasts (two islands, two coasts) with multiple scenic stops.  Princess Cruises offers this voyage with ports of call that include Auckland, Wellington, Port Chalmers and Fiordland National Park.