Bay of Islands...Taxi's

[SF]

We are thinking of doing the glow worm caves on our own and picking up a taxi at the Waitangi wharf which is where we think the Solstice tenders drop you off.

Are there any taxis there that you can hire to take you to the caves, wait for you and take you back? Or do you have to go to the other wharf (Paihia) where the free bus drops you off?

[Opua Kiwi]

There aren't taxis in the normal sense in Paihia.

There will be taxi vans which will be doing tours.

Some may be pre-booked, but there should be one or two others in the carpark at the Paihia shuttle stop looking to fill up to do set tour routes.

Some may include the caves but I think would normally be shared vans.

 

If you want something dedicated for your group pre-booking would be best.

 

Because of the shuttle from Waitangi to Paihia the "transport hub" (tee hee) is at Paihia.

[Sallyandtex]

Hello there!

 

Just a word of warning about pre-booking BOI private tours.

BOI is a tender port. Make sure if you prebook to do it later in the day as possible.

 

We recently went on Radiance OTS and had a 8 seater van booked (exceptional value $360 NZ for the 8 of us for 4.5hrs) that took us to all the places we wanted to go (Glow worms, Kauri forest etc) I think it was abc shuttles.

There is a $20 fee pp for the Caves paid directly to the family who own it.

 

We booked the bus for 11.30am , as the ship was due in the harbour at 10am.

We lined up prior to 7am to get tender tickets, and only just made it ashore in time.

A few people we spoke to missed their tour as they arrived at 1pm (still got their tender tickets early)

Being RCI, they may run things differently (slower?) than a smaller ship ???

Good luck!

[Beanb41]

Solstice are appalling when it comes to Tenders. For some reason they cannot get things right. I would remind you that there is a priority list for tenders. First ashore are ship excursions and places like the BOI there are a lot due to the fact that most tours are long distance and it is too dangerous to take long distance tours from Paihia without running the risk of missing the ship.

Second on the list are Elite plus passengers, VIPs and suite passengers. There could be several hundred of these. It is not uncommon these days to have around 200- 300 Elite plus passengers on board Celebrity ships. Then tenders start at number 1 ......................... With an average of 100 pax per tender and a 20 - 30 minute round trip it could take a while to get ashore if not on the priority list

[SF]

Solstice are appalling when it comes to Tenders. For some reason they cannot get things right. I would remind you that there is a priority list for tenders. First ashore are ship excursions and places like the BOI there are a lot due to the fact that most tours are long distance and it is too dangerous to take long distance tours from Paihia without running the risk of missing the ship.

Second on the list are Elite plus passengers, VIPs and suite passengers. There could be several hundred of these. It is not uncommon these days to have around 200- 300 Elite plus passengers on board Celebrity ships. Then tenders start at number 1 ......................... With an average of 100 pax per tender and a 20 - 30 minute round trip it could take a while to get ashore if not on the priority list

 

Solstice is scheduled to arrive in Bay of Islands at 7am. We are planning on booking a private tour and told the company 9am. We get priority tendering so do you think we'll be off by 9am? They are picking us up right where the tenders drop you off so we won't have to shuttle to Paihia. Also, as for priority tendering in the past you just went down with a priority card that was left in your room and waited in the line...is that still how it is? We never needed to get a tender ticket. Just disembarked when we were ready.