Welcome to Banks Peninsula, home of The Hector’s dolphins and eco-tourism pioneers Black Cat Cruises

Category Archives: Hector’s Dolphins

Conservation Week 2019

Starting tomorrow is Department of Conservation – Conservation Week 2019! This year proudly celebrates 50 years of Conservation Week here in NZ – an amazing feat! The week runs from the 14th of September through to the 22nd of September 2019 in locations all over New Zealand. Why do we need a Conservation Week? New […]

Finalists in the 2019 NZ Tourism Awards

We are so excited to share that we are finalists in the 2019 New Zealand Tourism Awards – (Department of Conservation Conservation Award). An amazing honour to be alongside the other fantastic finalists in our category – Auckland Whale & Dolphin Safari, Auckland Zoo, & Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony. We are very proud of our incredible team and their […]

Hector’s Dolphin Threat Management Plan – What You Need to Know

We’ve unlocked the mystery behind the recently released Threat Management Plan (from here in we’ll call it the TMP). It’s a very complex document which will bamboozle and confuse the average New Zealander. And even some of the best brains in this space took many hours to understand it! The TMP outlines recommendations to the Ministers’ […]

Swim for Hector’s

A team from Black Cat Cruises and the Department of Conservation recently swam across Akaroa Harbour from Tikao Bay to Akaroa Main Beach, to help raise awareness for the protection of the Hector’s dolphin. An amazing feat for an amazing cause! The reason behind the swim Swimming across Akaroa Harbour wasn’t an easy task, but the […]

The Real Value of Hector’s

Putting the $ in Hector’$ Can you really put a dollar value on a species like Hector’s dolphins? Or should you? Surely the conservation and sustainability of our only native dolphin is enough to drive the correct decisions by our government. It turns out it’s a little more complex than that; the fishing industry has […]

THE MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR DOLPHIN

New Zealand’s own dolphin By any measure Hector’s dolphins are a very special animal. Not only are they the smallest dolphin in the world, they are also the only one native to New Zealand. They’re as kiwi as the kiwi. If that is not enough, just like New Zealanders, they are very friendly, often investigating […]

Hector’s Dolphin Research: Scientific Gizmos Galore

By Tom Brough; Whilst this strange ‘summer’ weather still limits some of our boat work in the more remote areas of Banks Peninsula, our research teams have been making the most of good weather windows and getting some solid work done. We’ve been retrieving and redeploying devices called TPODs that are permanently moored around the […]

Akaroa; Swimming With Dolphins With Carmen Huter

International blogger Carmen Huter came to Akaroa as her last stop on her New Zealand adventure. Carmen is a wonderful blogger and photographer and kindly shared some her stunning Akaroa photographs with us…along with her thoughts on what makes Swimming With Dolphins in Akaroa so special. Being from a landlocked country myself, anything to do […]

Hector’s Dolphin Research; Best Summer Day So Far……

World leading marine mammal experts Professors Steve Dawson and Liz Slooten are currently in Akaroa carrying out Hector’s Dolphin research. They have given us an exclusive sneak peak into what daily life is like for them on the peninsula…. ”After a summer of unstable weather, the day has dawned calm and sunny, and promised to […]

Winter Whales in Akaroa

As an eco-tourism operator in Akaroa who for the longest time has spent decades taking customers out every single day to view the worlds rarest and smallest dolphin the Hector’s dolphin (also known as New Zealand dolphin as they are only found in our waters) we must say that we too gasp with joy when […]