Voyage to Australia & New Zealand 2026
On January 4 we boarded the Holland America ship Zaandam in San Diego for a three month voyage to Australia, New Zealand and many Pacific islands (including Hawaii). Our previous sailings from the West Coast had been limited to Alaska cruises in 2017 and 2025 and for both of those we drove across country to board the ships. This time we flew across the continent and the airline experience was very different (and more challenging) than our last domestic flight several decades ago.
We arrived in San Diego on January 3 after a largely uneventful flight. Our hotel was right across the street from the dock and close enough to the airport that we could see it from our balcony across the bay. By morning the Zaandam was moored at the dock. We watched while the crew uncovered the logo for the Grand Australia and New Zealand Voyage on the front of the ship under the bridge. We had breakfast at the hotel with our old friend Cecile who lives in San Diego, then walked over and embarked on the ship around noon.
Our itinerary on this voyage included Hawaii, an almost complete circumnavigation of Australia, a number of ports in New Zealand and a whole lot of islands with a return to San Diego in early April. Here is a map of the full itinerary followed by a listing of all the scheduled ports (with only a few minor inaccuracies).
|
DATE
|
DAY
|
PORT
|
ARRIVE
|
DEPART
|
|
Jan 4
|
Sunday
|
San Diego, California
|
Embark
|
4:00 PM
|
|
Jan 10
|
Saturday
|
Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii*
|
7:00 AM
|
—
|
|
Jan 11
|
Sunday
|
Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
|
—
|
9:00 PM
|
|
Jan 12
|
Monday
|
Kona, Hawaii
|
8:00 AM
|
6:00 PM
|
|
Jan 13
|
Tuesday
|
Kahului, Maui, Hawaii
|
8:00 AM
|
6:00 PM
|
|
Jan 19
|
Monday
|
Pago Pago, Tutuila, American Samoa
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Jan 20
|
Tuesday
|
Crossing International Dateline
|
—
|
—
|
|
Jan 21
|
Wednesday
|
Apia, Upolo, Samoa
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Jan 23
|
Friday
|
Savusavu, Vanua Levi, Fiji
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Jan 24
|
Saturday
|
Suva, Viti Levu, Fiji Islands
|
8:00 AM
|
6:00 PM
|
|
Jan 25
|
Sunday
|
Lautoka, Viti Levu, Fiji
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Jan 27
|
Tuesday
|
Easo, Lifou, New Caledonia
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Jan 28
|
Wednesday
|
Noumea, New Caledonia
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Jan 30
|
Friday
|
Port Vila, Vanuatu
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 1
|
Sunday
|
Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Island
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 3
|
Tuesday
|
Rabaul, Papua New Guinea
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 5
|
Thursday
|
Alotau, Papua New Guinea
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 6
|
Friday
|
Kiriwina Island, Papua New Guinea
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 8
|
Saturday
|
Cairns, Australia*
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 9
|
Monday
|
Cairns, Australia
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 10
|
Tuesday
|
Scenic Cruising – The Great Barrier Reef Experience
|
—
|
—
|
|
Feb 11
|
Wednesday
|
Scenic Cruising – The Great Barrier Reef Experience
|
—
|
—
|
|
Feb 12
|
Thursday
|
Scenic Cruising Torres Strait
|
—
|
—
|
|
Feb 14
|
Saturday
|
Darwin, Australia
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 16
|
Monday
|
Broome, Australia
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 18
|
Wednesday
|
Exmouth, Australia
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 20
|
Friday
|
Fremantle (Perth), Australia*
|
8:00 AM
|
—
|
|
Feb 21
|
Saturday
|
Fremantle (Perth), Australia
|
—
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 23
|
Monday
|
Albany, Australia
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Feb 26
|
Thursday
|
Adelaide, Australia
|
8:00 AM
|
11:00 PM
|
|
Feb 27
|
Friday
|
Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island, Australia
|
8:00 AM
|
6:00 PM
|
|
Mar 1
|
Sunday
|
Melbourne, Australia
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Mar 3
|
Tuesday
|
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
|
8:00 AM
|
—
|
|
Mar 4
|
Wednesday
|
Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia
|
9:00 AM
|
4:00 AM
|
|
Mar 6
|
Friday
|
Sydney, Australia*
|
8:00 AM
|
—
|
|
Mar 7
|
Saturday
|
Sydney, Australia
|
—
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Mar 10
|
Tuesday
|
Milford Sound, New Zealand
|
7:00 AM
|
8:00 AM
|
|
Cruising Fiordland National Park
|
—
|
—
|
||
|
Mar 11
|
Wednesday
|
Port Chalmers (Dunedin), New Zealand
|
7:00 AM
|
6:00 PM
|
|
Mar 12
|
Thursday
|
Timaru, New Zealand
|
7:00 AM
|
3:00 PM
|
|
Mar 13
|
Friday
|
Wellington, New Zealand
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Mar 15
|
Sunday
|
Tauranga (Rotorua), New Zealand
|
7:00 AM
|
7:00 PM
|
|
Mar 16
|
Monday
|
Auckland, New Zealand*
|
8:00 AM
|
—
|
|
Mar 17
|
Tuesday
|
Auckland, New Zealand
|
—
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Mar 18
|
Wednesday
|
Waitangi (Bay of Islands), New Zealand
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Mar 21
|
Saturday
|
Nuku’alofa, Tonga
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Mar 22
|
Sunday
|
Crossing International Dateline
|
—
|
—
|
|
Mar 24
|
Tuesday
|
Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia*
|
8:00 AM
|
—
|
|
Mar 25
|
Wednesday
|
Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
|
—
|
4:00 AM
|
|
Bahia d’Opunoha, Moorea, French Polynesia
|
9:00 AM
|
10:00 PM
|
||
|
Mar 26
|
Thursday
|
Raiatea, Society Islands, French Polynesia
|
8:00 AM
|
11:00 PM
|
|
Mar 27
|
Friday
|
Bora Bora, French Polynesia
|
8:00 AM
|
11:00 PM
|
|
Mar 29
|
Sunday
|
Fakarava, Tuamotu, French Polynesia
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Mar 31
|
Tuesday
|
Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, French Polynesia
|
8:00 AM
|
5:00 PM
|
|
Apr 7
|
Tuesday
|
San Diego, California
|
7:00 AM
|
Disembark
|
|
*overnight stay
|
We spent the day unpacking and settling in. We discovered at dinner that we had been assigned (without requesting it) to table 65 in the Main Dining Room, the same table we had occupied on our first two world cruises on the old Amsterdam, an almost identical sister ship of Zaandam. And in another welcome coincidence two other people assigned to our table, Roger and Karen, had shared our dinner table on the Alaska Solstice cruise the previous summer. When night fell the brightly lit San Diego waterfront looked like it was dressed up for Christmas as we sailed away.for five days at sea before reaching our first port.
BADER JOURNAL 
