Waitangi / Bay of Islands port - will we see the islands on the way in?

[wallflower07]

We're first time cruisers travelling and looking at the port day tours offered through our cruise ship (Noordam) for Waitangi. Many of them are catamaran cruises around the islands or hole in the rock. 

 

I'm wondering if this is worth it or if we'll be able to see a few of the islands from the crows nest on the way in and we can then spend our day exploring on land?

We were looking at an activity that isn't offered on the ship excursions list but I note there's a tender required to get to the port. If we book an externally offered excursion are we likely to have trouble getting onto a tender in time to make it? I imagine people on excursions booked through the ship get priority for tenders and then from there it might be done by room type and we're in an interior room...or do we just have to line up early?

 

Thanks

[Mary loves to travel]

I have wondered the same thing about Bay of Islands!

 

As far as tendering, my experience in the past at other tender ports has been that if you  line up as soon as tendering opens, you won't have much problem getting a spot on an early tender.

 

Best,

Mary

[yarramar]

On 10/15/2023 at 1:36 PM, wallflower07 said:

We're first time cruisers travelling and looking at the port day tours offered through our cruise ship (Noordam) for Waitangi. Many of them are catamaran cruises around the islands or hole in the rock. 

 

I'm wondering if this is worth it or if we'll be able to see a few of the islands from the crows nest on the way in and we can then spend our day exploring on land?

We were looking at an activity that isn't offered on the ship excursions list but I note there's a tender required to get to the port. If we book an externally offered excursion are we likely to have trouble getting onto a tender in time to make it? I imagine people on excursions booked through the ship get priority for tenders and then from there it might be done by room type and we're in an interior room...or do we just have to line up early?

 

Thanks

This is an overview of the region for a tourist perspective.

https://www.newzealand.com/int/bay-of-islands/