Australia & New Zealand on Crystal Symphony, January 2017

1 - Virgin Australia Premium class is much closer to business class than it is to economy 2 -The Rocks area of Sydney Harbor is one of the main tourist areas by the waterfront. Plenty of restaurants, bars, and of course the Sydney Opera House. 3 - The Shangri-La hotel is a great choice, beautiful rooms, great location, and the club floor has wonderful food options throughout the day and amazing views. 4 - The Bridge Climb was so much fun, a must do if you have the time. 5 - You have to take a selfie with a Kangaroo when you’re down under. 6 - Our trip to the Blue Mountains was a wonderful way to spend the day 7 - Everything about Crystal Cruises is top notch, food, service, cabins, etc. 8 - Cruising through Milford Sound was a beautiful way to spend a morning, waterfalls everywhere 9 - Each of the cities we visited had a different feel and a variety of sights and activities available 10 - Yes, there are sheep everywhere, our visit to a sheep farm was one of the highlights of our trip

Celebrating New Year’s Eve at 35,000 feet above the Pacific. There’s so much extra leg room and wider seats that recline further in Virgin Australia’s Premium class. This is much closer to Business Class than it is to economy. The main difference being that the seats don’t lie flat. The food and drink service is very close to Business Class for thousands less.

The iconic Sydney Opera house has a one-hour tour that leaves every few minutes and gives you a discount on a performance in the following two weeks. This fun area, known as The Rocks, has the oldest buildings, cute streets, ocean front restaurants a botanical garden as well as the beautiful Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Shangri-la Hotel is walking distance to all the sights in The Rocks. The Concierge lounge has a great breakfast and afternoon hors d’ouevres as well as a stunning view. An inspiring way to begin your day.

Although pricey, the Bridge Tours are exciting and scenic! The price includes a free ticket to the Pylon Lookout where you can get beautiful pictures, so do the climb early in your visit so you can take advantage of this. On that note, our Opera House tour tickets also got us a discount on tickets to a show at the Opera house, not sure if that is always the case. We did the express climb (2 3/4 hours) and had plenty of time to enjoy the views from the inner workings to the top picture-worthy summit. Run with military precision, safety is guaranteed. You don’t have to be an athlete to do this climb.

The Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary was relaxed and had all of Australia’s interesting animals, birds and reptiles. There was no line to take a picture with a Koala during our early morning visit and it was so easy to take a selfie with the free roaming kangaroos!.

The Blue Mountains are sometimes called the Grand Canyon of Australia and are just outside of the city of Sydney. There are many vistas and waterfalls though out the region. We spent a full day exploring that also included the Leura Cascades where the waterfalls were magical.

All aboard the Crystal Symphony where they more than live up to their reputation of excellent service in a relaxed, smaller ship. Our beautifully decorated veranda cabin had plenty of room for all of our things. One of the ways Crystal really stands out from the other brands is the quality and variety of on-board enrichment. In addition to computer and Spanish classes, knitting and bridge, our cruise featured the Secret Service Agent who climbed on the back of JFK’s car on that fateful day in Dallas and an Astronaut who has been on multiple space missions.

Milford Sound was stunning - waterfalls, waterfalls, waterfalls! The southern end of the South Island of New Zealand is full of fjords, glaciers and unique birds and nature.

The cities were all so unique. Melbourne was much larger than expected with tons of cool areas to explore including a great farmers market. Napier was rebuilt in the Art Deco style after its 1931 earthquake.

Christchurch, still recovering from its huge earthquake six years ago, has creatively used shipping containers to make a temporary mall. The countryside surrounding cities and towns often feature rolling hills of green and gold.

The very well done Te Puia Maori Interpretive Center is right next to some amazing thermal geysers. The ground was hot when I placed my hand against a rock. Te Puia houses the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute, national schools of carving, weaving and other traditional arts train talented students from around New Zealand under the guidance of master craftspersons. The movie set for the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies is one of the most popular tourist attractions in New Zealand for good reason. So charming and realistic!

Living up to it's reputation, you can find sheep everywhere in New Zealand and they are so adorable!