Kayaking in Bay Of Islands

[HairyBiker777]

Hi all,

 

I'm visiting BOI in February next year on Crown Princess, and I'm keen to do some kayaking. I understand the basics of getting around and finding local vendors / tour operators (tender to Waitangi, free shuttle to Paihia, vendors on the beach and at the visitor centre). I wonder if I should book my kayaking in advance, particularly as I would prefer to do a guided tour as opposed to a rental.

 

I've found a couple of kayak operators via the local tourism website: Moana Kayaks don't explicitly say that they do tours, and Bay Of Islands Kayaking say that you have to get over to their base on a ferry for an 0830 start if you want to go on their tours. We're in port from 0800-1800 and I'm pretty sure that tender + shuttle + ferry wouldn't get us there in time for that. Any recommendations on an easy-to-find guided kayak tour, ideally with a focus on wildlife?

 

Thanks in advance... 

[cruiseaholic78]

Seeing the complicated logistics and maybe a silly question but in this case is it not possible to book this with your cruise company?
happy planning

[HairyBiker777]

1 minute ago, cruiseaholic78 said:

Seeing the complicated logistics and maybe a silly question but in this case is it not possible to book this with your cruise company?
happy planning

 

Not a silly question at all 🙂 

 

You're quite right - I'm just allergic to the rip-off prices that the cruise line charges, and trying to do things independently of them where possible.

[cruiseaholic78]

Just another question, we are on a small ship Azamara also going to Bay of Islands, for us it is a tender port making logistics there even more complicated. As much as we like to do our own thing or book privately with a Tour operator, in this case with a tender port (maybe not for you)  I would definitely go with the ship.

 

If not do check their cancellation policies as we have lost out when having to cancel when ship couldn’t go.

[2022cruisey]

My son did the Haruru Falls kayaking excursion with Princess in January this year.   As it was a tender port, it got him priority off the boat and straight to the tour.  It was not that expensive and he had a fantastic experience.  
As my daughter and I didn’t have a ship excursion we had to wait quite a while to get a tender off the boat.  

[HairyBiker777]

34 minutes ago, 2022cruisey said:

My son did the Haruru Falls kayaking excursion with Princess in January this year.   As it was a tender port, it got him priority off the boat and straight to the tour.  It was not that expensive and he had a fantastic experience.  
As my daughter and I didn’t have a ship excursion we had to wait quite a while to get a tender off the boat.  

 

I ended up booking for that excursion myself. I spoke to several of the local kayak hire / kayak trip companies directly and I have to say, some of them really haven't got their act together. On the day we're going to be there, it seems like most of them are either only running sunset trips (too late for us), running excursions that arrive back after the last tender departs, running excursions that set off before the first tender gets in etc etc. You would think that on a day when a huge ship rocks up, they would go out of their way to put trips on that are a good fit for the passengers. SMH...