bargain cruises - South Pacific islands (from Sydney)?

hi thorntree friends:

recently moved to australia and one of the things i dream of doing is going on a cruise to nearby (relatively) south pacific islands.

are there any websites/travel agencies that offer bargain, last minute cruise deals that depart from Sydney?

would love to get out to new caledonia, fiji, cook islands, etc... i figure a cruise is the best way to see 'em all in a short amount of time.

cheers,
drulee

<blockquote>Quote
<hr>new caledonia, fiji, cook islands, etc... i figure a cruise is the best way to see 'em all in a short amount of time<hr></blockquote>I think you are wrong about that.
Most cruises cover a much smaller area, say New Caledonia with Vanuatu, or sg. similar.
They also tend to concentrate on thee islands closest to Australia - like the above two.
There are a few cruises that cover a lot more of the Pacific, but they do it in several weeks and even months (depending on how far you go with them) and they would cost you much more money and time than seeing the same number of countries by air.

Basically, cruises are for pleasure rides where the brief, heavily commercialized island stopovers offer just glimpses of the countries they stop at.
If you really want to see several Pacific countries (especially ones as far apart as New Caledonia and the Cooks) in a reasonably short time, forget these and start looking for air fares.

Yes you can get last minutes bargains for cruises out of Sydney on this site

www.bestcruises.com.au

Most of the cruises run from 7 to 13 days and mainly cover New Caledonia , Vanuatu, and Fiji

Cruises to Vanuatu/Ne Cal stop at one or more of Vila or "Mystery Is" ( a deserted island ) , also Noumea, Isle of Pines, Ouvea, Highenghene etc. They typically stop at 2 or 3 of those ports, usually for about 8 hours.

The result is that on a 8 day cruise from say Sydney, you will have a total of up to 24 hours on land.

Ive been on one and it was great fun, but it is NOT designed to have you tour the islands. A better idea is to get a flight ex Syd or Brisbane direct to one of thiose countries and spend a week or 2 there. Id suggest going to Virgin Blue's website here and look at their specials into one of the Pacific capitals, or Air Caledonie here, for Noumea (Qantas code share and is good for getting there via Frequent flyer points).