Akaroa and Lyttelton News

The original Black Cat boat was called Charmaine. She was bought from the Marlborough Sounds in 1985 and held a maximum of 42 people. After three years she was sold and the larger Canterbury Cat brought from Whangarei in 1988. Prior to the Charmaine there were no cruise operators on the harbour, though one or two had tried to operate seasonal trips including the Tug Lyttelton and Miss Akaroa.

We are a finalist in this years tourism awards in the DOC sponsored conservation category. Our entry focused on the innovative conservation activities we have put in place in three main areas including reducing energy use, reducing waste and our local conservation efforts.

Visitors on board a Christchurch Wildlife Cruise in Lyttelton Harbour in October had the privilege of seeing a very relaxed southern right whale. The whale was sighted at Breeze Bay inside the harbour and we spent about 45 minutes with it, even turning off the engines to watch it roll around in a friendly manner. These whales were very common before whaling out of Lyttelton decimated their population. It’s likely this one is en route to feeding grounds of the Southern Ocean and was resting en route.

On October 1st some of our prices went up but most stayed the same. Akaroa Harbour Cruises adults is now $68. Christchurch Wildlife Cruises is now $67. And swimming with dolphins is now $139, child $115. All other prices including children’s fares remain the same. Swimming with dolphins refunds have also increased. If you are unlucky enough to be in the 1.6% of people who do not see any dolphins you will receive a 75% refund (whether you watch or swim). For those that swim with dolphins but its deemed the swim was not interactive enough, we refund $59 (adults...

Check out this awesome blog about an Akaroa holiday and a great cruise on Black Cat: Click to view .

Good news: all of our cruises are operating as normal. Our 1860 building in Lyttelton has some earthquake issues so we are operating in temporary facilities until such time as the building is fixed or we move our check in at Lyttelton to something more permanent. More news on that as soon as we have it.

This is the question most on people’s lips when they come for a cruise. For the last 4 years every cruise we have taken out on Akaroa harbour has recorded how often we have seen dolphins and the results are as follows. We asked crew to rate the encounters on a scale of Very good to extra poor. The amount of trips rated at either very good, good or average were as follows: 2007 95.4%, 2008 95.4%, 2009 94.2% and 2010 (year to date) 93.6%. Across four years, those trips which did not see any dolphins at all were about...

Popular childrens' television show What Now has enlisted the help of Black Cat Cruises to help with its hunt for a new presenter. Hundreds of people from around New Zealand applied for the role, and What Now are now down to three finalists. They were put through their paces in Akaroa on Sunday and the three contenders took the plunge off one of our vessels as part of the competition.

Hi there, Just a little note to say thank you very much from myself and my family for a fantastic Swim with the Dolphin excursion on Saturday 05 June. The dolphins were a highlight of our visit to Christchurch/Akaroa over the long weekend. The weather was amazing and the dolphins obliged in more ways than one in entertaining us. The crew were very hospitable and made the trip a very worthwhile and memorable experience. Thank you again. Kind Regards Sandie TOURMASTERS South Pacific (NZ) Limited

We operate all our cruises every day of the year, subject to weather conditions of course but this is the time of year where we do all of our low season maintenance. We are about half way through this years work programme and right now we have our largest vessel on the slip (Black Cat) with the engines in 10,000 pieces. Over $500,000 per year is spent in maintenance and capital expenditure all aimed at preserving our reliability and safety record.

The great Quail Island treasure hunt was run over the summer and we have a winner. The Eksteen family from Spreydon were drawn at random from the thousands of entrants. This lucky family gets to go on an overnight cruise in Doubtful Sound and spend a night in Queenstown at the Millennium hotel. The treasure hunt will be back in December.

In many ways we see ourselves as an entertainment company putting on a massive production. The backdrop is the wonderful scenery, the props the fantastic wildlife and the actors are our team. Every year we assess how you rate our production. This year was especially pleasing with our Swimming with Dolphins rated 9.3, Akaroa Harbour Nature Cruises at 9.3 and Christchurch Wildlife Cruises 9.4 (on average out of 10). We also asked how many people would recommend our cruises to friends and family. Those who answered quite or very likely were 99.5%, 98.1%, and 85% respectively.

Yes we know that everyone has a Facebook page now but we’d love you to follow us on Facebook. We have all the latest pictures, news and offers on line plus we are going to be giving away tons of prizes over the next 3 months to our Facebook fans who will be picked at random. Join up by clicking here .

Check out this awesome blog about a swimming trip and esp the video with a great ending...what an outstanding experience! http://www.aswetravel.com/akaroa-and-dolphin-watching-in-new-zealand/

We’ve been debating this question internally for a while now and we are interested in your thoughts. There is no doubt Akaroa has a French flavour and it is a unique part of New Zealand for that reason. But should we be doing more to make the most of this? And if so what are a few good ideas? Here is one journalists opinion on how Akaroa is almost French…. http://richardtulloch.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/akaroa-where-nouvelle-zelande-is-almost-french/

Every year we take literally thousands of pictures of people swimming with dolphins. This year we held a competition for the best shot and here is the result. Competition winner was swim guide Georgie Shadbolt whose winning picture actually featured another team member, Charlotte White. Georgie won a digital camera for her winning photo. “It was great fun taking photos and looking for good opportunities,” Georgie said. “It got a bit competitive as we all looked for that money shot over the summer.”

Our whale sighting activity continues with sighting of a Humpback Whale and Calf on the 23rd May, No doubt they are on their way north to warmer climes. There are more images on our Facebook page.

Hello Lorna, About a month ago we received a very welcome surprise in our mail in the form of a letter telling us that we had been drawn to receive a harbour cruise. We took the opportunity to use this prize and along with the purchase of a second ticket cruised the harbour and the open sea on Sunday march 14th. This is just to say thank you for making these cruises available as prizes. The day was perfect and the vessel was about full. We had not realised the size of the harbour and of course we were interested to...

Former All Black Scott Roberston and Miss Italy Tania Zamparo are currently filming a documentary that will help promote the Rugby World Cup 2011 to Italians. This is the first of many positive spin offs of this huge event which is sure to help profile New Zealand as great holiday destination to new audiences. 8,700 Italians travelled to New Zealand in the year-ending February 2010. That number was up 7.3 per cent on the previous year, indicating the potential for growth from this market. Local newspaper The Press also ran this story.

We operate as a function venue for corporate events and recently held the launch of a new bourbon. Pictured here are the Bourbon Girls on the Canterbury Cat and here is the feedback from the organiser. “Thanks so much for setting it up so that everything was super easy last night. The crew that were on went above and beyond to help us out and were a real pleasure to work with. Many Thanks Sarah."