Wheelchair Transport in new Zealand Ports

Hi,

Next Feb I am taking my extended family on Majestic princess to New Zealand.

our ports of call are

Auckland, tuarangua, Wellington, Akaroa (tender) and Dunedin.

The issue I am having is my 15 yo son is in a power wheelchair, and having done some research I am finding it difficult to find wheelchair transport from the ports to wellington and Dunedin.

In Auckland we were going to walk around the cbd and Tuarangura I have found a tour operator that has Wheelchair transport.

I was hoping some of the fine folk on cruise critic might have some suggestions as to how to get from the ports to Wellington and Dunedin. Akoaroa he will stay on board so we won't worry about that port.

Thank in advance.

Maree

When we did round NZ last year, both those ports (plus Tauranga - as the ship docked in Mt Maunganui, which is a little way from Tauranga itself - though I assume your tour guide will pick you up from the ship anyway?) had a shuttle service running. It appeared that there was only a single bus each time that was wheelchair accessible, so if you take that option, make sure you allow plenty of time to return to port... with the multitude of scooters, I think I had to wait for the bus to come around three times in Dunedin before I could get on. Also very steep to get off the bus, as the bus just pulled up on the asphalt rather than having a kerb to drop the ramp onto. Once there, I found Wellington and Dunedin both okay to navigate in my manual chair - decent pavements, and enough kerb cutouts and the like to get around okay.

Not sure about independent tour operators or taxis though, sorry.

Thank you so much lokipoki. We have previously had my son in his manual chair for cruises in south pacific, but at 15 he is getting sick of waiting for us to push him. I am relieved to hear that there are wheelchair shuttles provided, were you on a princess cruise when you were in New Zealand?

And yes in Tauranga we are being collected from the port.

Cheers Maree

Hi Maree,

I can well understand that ... I’ve just got a power assist device as my wrists and shoulders are shot after years in a chair, and the freedom is amazing!

Yep, it was a Princess cruise. You had to pay for the shuttle - except in Wellington, as pedestrians weren’t permitted to walk through the port area (I think when we were there, the ships were docking in a different spot to normal because of earthquake damage - whether that’s been fixed or not, I don’t know) I think otherwise it was about $5 - not a huge sum.

Not sure if you’ve already looked at either of these sites, or how much help they might be -

http://accessiblenz.com/wp/tour-options/new-zealand-cruise-ship-tour-shore-excursion/

http://www.toursnz.com/services.htm

Laura

When I was on our NZ cruise I was out of a chair for a while, so I’m not sure my advice would be accurate sorry.

As an aside I much prefer a power chair to a scooter.

When I was on our NZ cruise I was out of a chair for a while, so I’m not sure my advice would be accurate sorry.

 

As an aside I much prefer a power chair to a scooter.

Rohan can walk short distances with help but he uses a wheelchair for longer distances, and he also much prefers his power chair, great independence for a teenage boy, which is why we thought a New Zealand cruise would be a better fit for him , than the South Pacific cruises we have done in the past.

Glad to see you have returned to cruising too, I hope your tassie trip goes off well.

Rohan can walk short distances with help but he uses a wheelchair for longer distances, and he also much prefers his power chair, great independence for a teenage boy, which is why we thought a New Zealand cruise would be a better fit for him , than the South Pacific cruises we have done in the past.

Glad to see you have returned to cruising too, I hope your tassie trip goes off well.

Thanks

I think you will find you are right, mt one reservation would be the shuttles. Does his chair fold, I had one that folded just like a manual chair but when it died couldn’t replace it, the new one though folds like a stroller, and better still folds at the push of a button, so no fighting with it.

You probably know but I always take my charger with me as my chair only has a range of about 20km and while that sounds a lot, it really isn’t. The last couple of cruises I had a hire chair and it went flat real quick so I’d even carry the charger on the ship, so I could just top up the charge when I needed to.

Hi GUT2407,

Rohans chair is a permobil power chair, weighs about 130kg without him in it, so definetely not collapsable, we always have his charger with us, coming from tassie we like to be prepared for the unlikely events, which is why I tend to research the s$%^t out of everything. So everyones input is greatly appreciated. Looking forward to trying out the Majestic princess when she hits our shores. Its interesting that a lot of the older ships do not do 3 or 4 berth accessible cabins, as we want to travel as a family unit it pretty much limited us to celebrity solstice or the majestic princess.

Cheers maree

A couple of tips for Wellington: you will be shuttled off-port to the central city in Wellington. At least half of the shuttles are wheelchair accessible and the staff will prioritise wheelchair passengers to the front of the queue to enable easy boarding. All of the major attractions - Te Papa, Wellington Cable Car, Parliament, Space Place, Wellington Museum - are accessible venues. While Wellington has a reputation as a hilly city, the waterfront and downtown area are all flat.

There's a couple of tourism operators who specialise in wheelchair transport if you want to tour - have a look at: https://www.wellingtonnz.com/discover/plan-trip-to-wellington/accessible-wellington/

https://www.wellingtonnz.com/discover/sights-activities/silver-cloud-luxury-tours/

A couple of tips for Wellington: you will be shuttled off-port to the central city in Wellington. At least half of the shuttles are wheelchair accessible and the staff will prioritise wheelchair passengers to the front of the queue to enable easy boarding. All of the major attractions - Te Papa, Wellington Cable Car, Parliament, Space Place, Wellington Museum - are accessible venues. While Wellington has a reputation as a hilly city, the waterfront and downtown area are all flat.

 

There's a couple of tourism operators who specialise in wheelchair transport if you want to tour - have a look at: https://www.wellingtonnz.com/discover/plan-trip-to-wellington/accessible-wellington/

https://www.wellingtonnz.com/discover/sights-activities/silver-cloud-luxury-tours/

It must vary from day to day; I’m fairly certain there was only a single accessible shuttle when we were in Wellington - and know there was in Dunedin. No priority coming back to port either, just everyone making a mad rush and pushing through for the next bus to come along, and never mind us chair (and scooter users) who’d been waiting for much longer.

A couple of tips for Wellington: you will be shuttled off-port to the central city in Wellington. At least half of the shuttles are wheelchair accessible and the staff will prioritise wheelchair passengers to the front of the queue to enable easy boarding. All of the major attractions - Te Papa, Wellington Cable Car, Parliament, Space Place, Wellington Museum - are accessible venues. While Wellington has a reputation as a hilly city, the waterfront and downtown area are all flat.

 

There's a couple of tourism operators who specialise in wheelchair transport if you want to tour - have a look at: https://www.wellingtonnz.com/discover/plan-trip-to-wellington/accessible-wellington/

https://www.wellingtonnz.com/discover/sights-activities/silver-cloud-luxury-tours/

Thanks for that, it is all useful info as we thought we might do our own thing in wellington. all Rohan wants to do is find local sweet stores to try New zealand lollies, he is mad on trying the snacks from different countries.

Cheers maree

It must vary from day to day; I’m fairly certain there was only a single accessible shuttle when we were in Wellington - and know there was in Dunedin. No priority coming back to port either, just everyone making a mad rush and pushing through for the next bus to come along, and never mind us chair (and scooter users) who’d been waiting for much longer.

Being in a wheelchair tends to make everything a bit of a bun fight, we find elevators especially bad, just in general, some people just lack general courtesy.