New culinary tours in the South Pacific with Oceania Cruises

Oceania Cruises is expanding its Culinary Discovery Tours to the South Pacific on the award-winning mid-sized luxury cruise ship Marina. Uniquely designed for each port, these tours provide guests with the opportunity to explore local food markets, vineyards and farms in small groups, side-by-side with an expert chef from the ship’s Bon Appétit Culinary Center. Participants then join the chef in the fully equipped cookery school for a hands-on cooking lesson of the regional cuisine in one of 24 workstations. These new tours are offered in the Bay of Islands and Tauranga, New Zealand on the 18-day South Pacific Paradise cruise. Departing Papeete, Tahiti on 7th February 2013, the cruise calls on 11 ports throughout French Polynesia, Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia before arriving in New Zealand. The tour in Tauranga, ‘Maori ‘Kai’ Cooking Demo and Kiwi Fruit‘, explores a flourishing kiwi orchard and is followed by a trip to the lakes of Rotorua for a traditional Maori luncheon featuring native herbs and ingredients used by the indigenous people of New Zealand. Marina also sails three additional South Pacific voyages with highlights that include overnight calls on Easter Island and Bora Bora, cruising the Tuamotu Archipelago and crossing the international dateline.