Arriving in Tauranga NZ at 4am - what time will we disembark?

[BrusselsGirl07]

Does anyone have any experience in arriving at a port at such an early time? The ship then leaves at 4.45pm in the afternoon, so would love to get off early to make the most of the day. We are planning a provate tour, and if we can be off and away by 6am, we could see so much more than if we started at 8 or 9am.

 

Thanks for any advice!

[Kiwi_cruiser]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1049624

[Aquarians]

Does anyone have any experience in arriving at a port at such an early time? The ship then leaves at 4.45pm in the afternoon, so would love to get off early to make the most of the day. We are planning a provate tour, and if we can be off and away by 6am, we could see so much more than if we started at 8 or 9am.

 

Thanks for any advice!

Kia ora,

Docking times for cruise ships arriving in Tauranga are generally governed by the tide. Your cruise line should be able to give you an idea but as it won't be your first NZ port of call it shouldn't take to long. Even if you are not off until 5am you won't find too much traffic about at that time of the morning. The problem may be more in finding things open then and my suggestion would be to use that time to head for the furthest point you intend to see and work back from there. Because of the light traffic at that time of the day you should be able to get around Tauranga easily and Rotorua should take you under an hour.

Aquarians

[BrusselsGirl07]

Thanks so much for your helpful reply! We are organising with a tour company to pick us up, but it is hard to know how much to plan when we don't know what time we can get off the ship! I would love to be able to get off by 6am to make a good start on the day!

[Fabian52]

Yes you might arrive early in the port but will the cruise ship let you off of the ship that early. I have never heard of them letting you off earlier than around 7:00 am and that was for the people that had ship tours that left first. My experience but I could definitely be wrong.