Tender in Bay of Islands

[Kazzlazz]

We will be in the Bay of Islands in January on the Sun Princess.

I believe we use a tender to get to shore. Does anyone know where we get off the tender and how long the trip in the tender takes? :confused:

[LindaJ+]

I'm on Volendam in Jan. ... but my itinerary indicates that is a tender stop.

[tjcox9]

Tender will drop you off at a location that is a ways from the main part of the town. A shuttle was provided when we were there on the Volendam, however, it wasn't allowed in the small parking area until after some of the tour buses got underway.

 

We did get the first shuttle and got around to the drop off point right in front of the local tours and were able to book with Fuller's for a nice tour of the Bay with just a few minutes to spare.

 

The distance is fairly far but could be walkable as we saw some people doing that, but since we wanted to catch the Bay tour, we took the shuttle.

 

After returning from our independent tour, we had a nice lunch and then strolled through a local market before taking the shuttle back to the ship. Sorry, but can't tell you the name of the drop off point.

[tjcox9]

Just remembered that the OP's question was about the distance, not where........

 

My rather fragmented memory remembers that we could not see the tender dock from the ship but that was because we were outside the cove where into which we were tendered............

 

And unfortunately, cuz we cruise too much and I don't take notes, I really don't have a clue, but it may have been more than five or ten minutes. Perhaps someone else can help.

 

I love it when someone responds to a question with an "answer" to other than what the question was, don't you? :confused:

[Glaciers]

I made a note of the tender ride in my journal as it took 15 minutes that I thought was a little long. We then took a shuttle bus into Paihai that took another 10 minutes or so.

[Kazzlazz]

Thank you both for your replies, you've both given me useful information :)

 

Getting an answer to a question you didn't ask can be good, especially when you meant to ask the other question as well but forgot! ;)

[MERLOTCHAMPAGNE]

As this will be our first port in NZ, will we have to wait to clear immigration before we get on the tender? This happened on our fall Canada/NE cruise as the immigration officials boarded an hour late and delayed us enough that we missed our independent tour. We are due to arrive at 8a and our tour begins at 10a. Hope we make it.

[moyaroo]

Civilized nations such as NZ put their customs officers on board and you clear as you cross the Tasman. (At least that is what we did on Celebrity two years ago.)

[The_Big_M]

Celebrity also had AU customs officers onboard going the other way. I'm not sure if all the cruise lines do this though.

[Budget Queen]

This is a great port for a car rental. Cheap easy way to tour the interesting areas.

 

As noted this is a short tender ride. I had a car delivered right to the tender dock. There is also a visitor center at the shuttle bus drop off.

[Molly Doble]

HI

We are wanting to do a cruise with Fullers and i was worried about whether we would make the tour in time, considering we have a tender and bus to catch. I sent them an email and they said to allow 40 minutes to get to Paihia but we should still make their tours. I hope so!

 

Tania :)

[Kazzlazz]

Hi Tania,

 

Which one of their tours are you doing? We are looking at their 4 hour Hole in the Rock Dolphin Cruise. I'm just a bit concerned about getting off the ship and getting to the departure point in time. :)

 

Karen

[Molly Doble]

Hi Karen

We are going to do the excitor boat adventure it goes for 1 1/2hrs and looks fun. We originally looked at the 4 hour one but i didn't think we could make the morning one in time.

 

Tania

[Kazzlazz]

That's my worry too!

 

When I was looking at Fullers, I didn't even see the Excitor tour :o I don't know how I missed it! LOL. I'm sure the family would enjoy it :):)

 

I'll have to go back to them now and see if there are any vacancies.

[GreeniePrincess]

We did the hole in the Rock cruise through Princess, main reason being is that we didn't have to want to wait in line to get off on the tender boats (if you aren't in line early, it cam take more than a half hour just to get off the ship). Because we booked through Princess, we had priority tender and were off the ship quickly as soon as the boats were running (i'm sure we paid a bit more, but it was worth it as you don't get much time in the ports). THe boat picked us up right at the tender port, and after we got back, we took the shuttle into town (no wait). We walked around for a bit, then decided to walk back to the tender port rather than take a shuttle. It took about 25-30 minutes to walk back from town at a slow pace. It was a really nice walk. Hope that helps!