South Pacific Cruises are a beautiful option when sailing out of Australia. The weather is warm (usually) and the beaches are beautiful. The people are welcoming and you don’t have to go too far once on land to be able to visit places.
Cruise lengths will vary. Longer journeys may include parts of Fiji or New Zealand.
What we love about South Pacific Cruising is you can make it as busy or laid back as you like. Most places we have visited on our South Pacific Cruises are easy to get around, don’t require tour guides and are generally quite cheap so you don’t pay for your cruise and then get hit with huge, unexpected $$ once docked.
The weather can turn in the South Pacific during summer and cyclones are common. The cruise companies do a brilliant job of staying on top of these things and will reroute, if required, to avoid particularly bad weather. We have had our itineraries changed on a couple of occasions to avoid bad weather. Once we “had” to go to Isle of Pines instead (oh, how horrible – not, it was absolutely gorgeous).
How calm are the waters?
In our experience, very calm once you get there. What I mean by that is the waters around the islands of the South Pacific have always been relatively calm for us, even when departing Noumea early to avoid a cyclone.
However, we have had many, semi rough crossings between Australia and New Zealand to get there. You know they are preparing for it to get a little rough when you see the sick bags come out! Don’t let this put you off. They certainly don’t mean that you will get sick but they are a precaution incase you do. We have been on ships that have been quite rough and still see people sitting at a bar drinking and swearing that the sway of the ship will just help them walk straight to get back to their cabin!
If you are worried about potentially getting sea sick, here are some tips from us:
- Book a cabin in the middle of the ship. It’s the mid point and doesn’t seem to move as much. As you can imagine if the waves are high, the front of the ship is up as it reaches the top and then comes down to get back to sea level after passing over the wave. The back of the ship is doing the opposite.
- When seated for dinner or where there are windows looking out to sea (especially lower on the ship where water could be splashing up on deck) sit with your back to the window so you can’t see the rise and fall of the horizon.
- Stay inside. Inside the ship where there are shops, cafes etc don’t often have windows to watch the waves roll in.
- If you venture outside, look far out to sea (don’t watch the ship splashing around in the waves)
It doesn’t last days. Remember they are looking for ways around storms or rough seas to make your journey as pleasant as possible. The ship’s captain, his/her crew and the ship itself couldn’t care less about the waves. From what we were told in a Captain’s speech once, they close the kitchen in about 10m waves as they can’t keep anything still. Even then, the Captain and crew will still eat normally but usually the passengers aren’t so keen!
I don’t think we’ve been on a ship where they have closed the kitchen so it couldn’t have been that bad. You can take sea sickness tablets with you if you are unsure and worried. My daughter once felt sick but after following the top three points she soon came good.
Don’t let a bit of an upset stomach ruin your trip. Once it’s cleared you should be fine and that is if you are unlucky to have rough seas to start with! If you do feel that you are very unwell, you can always consider visiting the onboard doctor.
Where do you stop?
We have compiled a list of destinations below where we have stopped while cruising through the South Pacific. Not all ships will stop at all ports so depending on your itinerary, you may or may not stop at each of these locations. There may be some cruise companies that stop at other ports. We have only included information on those ports where we have physically stopped ourselves while cruising.
- Isle of Pines
- Lifou
- Mare
- Mystery Island
- Noumea
- Port Vila
We have also stopped at other locations in Fiji and New Zealand as part of a South Pacific Cruise holiday.
