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.
Category Archives: Akaroa and Lyttelton News
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.
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 learn some more history of the region. Once again many thanks for your kind gesture.
Regards Martin and Jenny Nordqvist, Methven.
Just to say how much we enjoyed one of your harbour cruises last month. We didn’t get the name of the pilot, but he was great and very informative. Please let him know how much we enjoyed the cruise. We also picked up one of the Whale and Dolphin Trust’s cards and sent it off, not really expecting to receive a response. However, we are pleased to say that yesterday we received a letter from your Minister of Conservation outlining measures that have already been taken to help the Hector’s and Maui’s Dolphins. Here’s hoping that these and any further measures taken to help these creatures ensures their safe future. Once again, thanks for the cruise – and to everyone at Black Cat; they were all so pleasant and helpful. We’re back in England now with many happy memories of our stay in NZ.
Wendy and David Pearce
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.”
I have been really pleased to hear back from lots of our customers about their experiences with us. Our customer survey results look outstanding and once they are fully collated I will be sharing those with you. In the meantime, check out this awesome blog about a swimming trip and esp the video with a great ending…what an outstanding experience!
http://trackingteddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/swimming-with-dolphins.html
A special welcome back to Pip Journeaux who is once again the manager of our Akaroa operations. Pip was in the role 4 ½ years ago before she left to go on maternity leave. Previous manager, Liz Ditmer recently departed for a role at ATTTO.