Let me be one of the first to wish you a merry Christmas! We are gearing up for our busy season in what will truly go down as a year never to be forgotten. I’d like to thank you for supporting Black Cat over 2011. There has been a lot of TV coverage for Akaroa recently with whales, French rugby supporters, a world famous conservationist and an Aussie weather man all visiting our town. Along with the cruise ships it’s sure to create lots of buzz for our summer season. We are looking forward in a positive manner and proceeding with a staff head count at only marginally behind a normal year. More info here in this link.  We hope to see you out on the water this summer.

Cheers Paul

Whales Honeymoon in Akaroa

It was great to see two rare Southern Right whales hang out in Akaroa Harbour for a week. Whale sightings have become more common for us recently but these ones parked up for a 7 days on an apparent honeymoon. Our team thought the male was interested in mating and the female not so much. Her behaviour included tail slapping, and swimming upside down. This behaviour is like saying ‘no thanks’. The male response was lots of breaching (jumping out of the water) and hanging about. Does all this sound familiar?! The whales attracted national media interest and here is TV3’s news report.

Cruise ship update

Akaroa has already hosted 20 cruise ship visits out of 80 visits this season including two days where two ships visited on the same day. Customers have commented on how lovely the little township is and our feedback is extremely positive. The town has also done a great job of welcoming visitors and every day there are plenty of operators available to provide things to do. Black Cat has been busy on the water on dolphin watching and swimming cruises and has provided transport to and from the ships some days too.

The Small 5

You may have heard of the big 5 in Africa. Well New Zealand has its own version called the Small 5! They are small and endangered species which include Hector’s dolphins, Yellow eye penguins, Kiwi, Kea and Tuatara. Recently Mark Cawardine was in Akaroa as part of an effort to highlight the small 5. Mark is world famous conservationist, a TV and radio presenter and a wildlife photographer. He co-presented the BBC series Last Chance to See, with Stephen Fry. Here is a great picture Mark took while out on one of our cruises and read his positive feedback on his trip to Akaroa at the bottom of this article.

The Today Show in Akaroa

Question: what do you do when one of the biggest storms of the year hits the South Island just as you start a live TV broadcast on Australia’s biggest TV network?

Answer: call in the A Team at Black Cat. Last month the popular weather presenter Steve Jacobs from the Today Show was in Akaroa presenting live back to Australia’s channel 9. Here is an image of Steve presenting his weather from Akaroa wharf in one of our dry suits in a good old fashioned Southerly gale.

Tourism NZ said ‘In the toughest of weather conditions your team came to our rescue and I’m pleased to say the segments were fantastic.  Entertaining, engaging and best of all full of Black Cat cruise comments. It was very humbling how the people of Akaroa helped us out on a crazy, last-minute mission.

French is the flavour of the month

Vive la France. We’ve been making an increased effort recently to highlight the unique French flavour of Akaroa. Here’s our team uniform for French fest and also we are continuing with this there on every day we have a cruise ship in.

World Cup wrap up

The French rugby team certainly turned up for the final in what everyone thought would be a one-sided affair. Prior to the big game we welcomed a number of fans to Akaroa and with that came national media coverage. Here is just one TV piece on the divided loyalty from Akaroa fans.

Quail Hunt

The Great Quail Island treasure hunt is on. All you need to do is pick up a treasure map on the ferry on the way over, find the ‘x’ markers and solve a secret word. All correct entries win a $5 prize for the kids with 2 for 1 coffee for the hard working adults at coffee culture.

Departs daily at 10.20am and also 12.20pm during school holidays.

Phone 03 328 9078 for more details.

Blogging favourites

Check out this great blog on Akaroa

http://cruisethepacific.blogspot.com/2011/06/akaroa-little-bit-of-france-in-south.html

Great Feedback.

Thanks so much for everything you did for me during my stay in Akaroa. It was all much appreciated. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and all your staff, and spending time out on the boats with the dolphins. And, as I said this afternoon, I’m very impressed with your operation. I’ve been on many whale and dolphin watching trips in over 65 different countries – and yours are outstanding. With many thanks, once again, and all good wishes.
Mark Carwardine. www.markcarwardine.com

We went to Quail Island with 40 winners from the Natural Confectionery Company competition. The Black Cat Captain and staff were really friendly, and the trip over was fun. Once we got to the island, we split into two groups, those that wanted to while away the time playing games, swimming and picnic-ing at Swimmers’ Beach and those that wanted an Island walk. The walk around the island was really interesting as the island is steeped in fascinating history. Once back at Swimmers’ Beach we played games and swam and ate – the kids loved the tree swing there too. Everyone was amazed at how beautiful the place was, and Swimmers’ Beach, with its white sand and pretty moored boats, gently sloping grass with loads of shade and amazing views of Lyttelton, is the perfect place to spend a whole day. Everyone I spoke to said they were going back to tell family and friends how fantastic it was. Personally, I thought the place was pure magic. 
Kind regards Rachel