Beyond the sea:
The delights of life on a cruise ship.
British singer and TV presenter Jane McDonald hosts a show which focuses on travel via luxury liners. She tells Sarah Nealon about her love affair with cruise ships and what happened when her series, Cruising With Jane McDonald, came to New Zealand.
Jane McDonald has one of the best jobs in television. As host of Britain’s Cruising With Jane McDonald, she travels the world on plush passenger ships, stopping in interesting places.
It’s a job that has taken her to some fabulous parts of the globe, including New Zealand where she was blown away with the views from Dunedin’s Larnach Castle (above).
The TV show has been a hit in the UK and last year it won a Bafta.
“I wanted to bring back some feel-good TV,” says McDonald, who is a singer and TV presenter.
“I wanted to bring my passion for cruising to a TV show because I’ve loved cruising all my life.”
If anyone knows cruise ships it’s McDonald. Her first taste of life on a luxury vessel was in 1987, when she landed a job on one as a singer.
McDonald, who lives in Yorkshire, loved getting paid to entertain and travel. She spent eight years doing this type of work.
“It was mainly the Caribbean and Europe,” she says when asked where the job took her. “All over the place really. I tended to be a bit of a wimp so I went where it was warm ...
“But I’m going far more adventurous now because, OK, a pina colada by the pool was great, but I’m bored now so I want to go and explore the world a little.”
In her travel series, McDonald gives viewers an insight into what’s on offer on a cruise ship by doing things such as enjoying a beauty treatment, checking out its retail shops, and savouring quiet time in the library with a book.
“My mission in life now is to find everybody their perfect cruise,” says McDonald, 56. “Usually the people who don’t like cruising are the people who’ve never been on one.”
She advises using a travel agent when booking a cruise.
“A lot of people don’t know what they’re actually looking for in a cruise,” says McDonald.
“There are the ships that have the big parties on board and you go to bed at four o’clock every morning and then sleep all morning and then get up and sunbathe. Then there are the discovery cruises where you go out and really see the country that you’re visiting.
“There is fantastic wine tasting which is obviously what I did in Marlborough. You find out what really makes you tick. Then you can find the sort of ship that you like.
“There are all-inclusive ships, there are small ships, there are very big ships. It depends if you’re going with a family or whether it’s a romantic trip. I should really start my own travel agency.”
When McDonald sailed into New Zealand to film Cruising With Jane McDonald, she stopped in various ports and took advantage of activities like wine tasting.
She also visited Wai-O-Tapu, an active geothermal area near Rotorua. During her visit to Hobbiton, two British travellers were star-struck by her presence.
Down south, McDonald relished her time in Dunedin.
“I went up to a fabulous house (Lanarch Castle) and it was weird because my family tartan is Ferguson,” says McDonald.
“My mother is a Ferguson and everybody was wearing Ferguson tartan there and I just thought, ‘Oh I’m having a little bit of a somewhere-in-time moment here’ and I felt really at home there.
“Then when I saw the beauty and the views from where I was stood, it was like being in the film Avatar.
“The colours were so vivid. It was so beautiful and my links with Scotland were very much like New Zealand. Probably one of my favourite places in the world is Scotland. But New Zealand was like Scotland in HD if you like. It was just breathtaking.
“I don’t often admit what my favourites are but New Zealand is definitely up there.”
Her visit to our shores also included riding a quad bike in the hills near Wellington, leaping off Auckland’s Sky Tower and doing a helicopter tour of the city.
“Being a woman of my age everybody thinks, ‘Better be a bit careful now’ when actually if you’re fit, do as much as you possibly can because there will come a time when you can’t do it,” says McDonald. “I have no fear now. I just carry on and do whatever I think and have a go.”
“Usually the people who don’t like cruising are the people who’ve never been on one.”
– Jane McDonald