Great Barrier Reef & Legendary Pacific Isles, 29 November 2029

Cruise overview

Depart Cairns for the outer reef pontoons of the Agincourt Ribbons, then trade coral for rainforest in the ancient canopy of Daintree. Continue south to Townsville, where wild koalas doze in the gum trees above Magnetic Island’s granite headlands and coral gardens fringe Florence Bay, before threading the Whitsundays: mirror water and Ngaro rock art at Nara Inlet, then Airlie Beach’s palm-lined esplanade with a seaplane view over Heart Reef and Whitehaven’s silica sands. At remote Middle Percy Island, row ashore to the driftwood-plaqued rafters of the fabled A-frame hut and leave one of your own. Great Keppel’s seventeen white beaches and giant clams in Monkey Bay give way to Lady Elliot Island, a coral cay reached by very few ships, where manta rays glide through a lagoon lit from below. After Brisbane’s riverside galleries and the sand islands of Moreton Bay, call at Norfolk Island, a landing few vessels attempt, to wander the UNESCO-listed convict ruins of Kingston above a turquoise bay and meet islanders descended from the Bounty mutineers. New Zealand unfolds through the Bay of Islands’ Hole in the Rock and its bow-riding dolphins, Great Barrier Island’s protected dark sky, and Waiheke’s vineyard terraces, before your voyage concludes in Auckland, the City of Sails, where the Sky Tower’s panorama crowns a harbour cradled by dormant volcanic cones.