In New Zealand you’re never more than 128km (80 miles) from the sea. Add the lakes that are a feature of many areas and boat trips are an essential part of any Aotearoa tour. Just looking at boating experiences included in tours we offer we came up with seven New Zealand boat trips and cruise you can enjoy while you’re here.

Kiwis love to get out on their local water.  Many have turned that passion into amazing experiences they share with visitors. Hopping on board one of these cruises or boat trips offers a chance to see some amazing local attractions with a passionate local crew.

As you will see, a boat trip is often the only way to see some of Aotearoa’s most interesting or remote sights. These experiences also offer much more than a simple boat ride. Many include food and some include other activities such as snorkeling and short hikes.

1. Darryl’s Lunch Cruise

Darryl’s Cruise departs from Paihia

There is no more beautiful place to get out on the water than the Bay of Islands. Its clear waters teem with marine life and its picturesque bays and historic townships are wonderful places to spend time. So a boat trip is an essential when it comes to tours of “the winterless North”.

This cruise offers a chance to experience the Bay of Islands. But that’s not all. You can enjoy a lunch of local produce – venison, lamb or locally caught fish – while travelling across the bay to Kororareka/Russell.

You can hop off in Russell. This historic town was once a port for the earliest European arrivals to Aotearoa, whalers and sealers. The trip back across the bay to Paihia completes the trip.

2. America’s Cup Sailing Tour

Kiwis are more likely to know the difference between a tack and a jibe than most people. The “City of Sails”, Auckland has hosted the America’s Cup many times, most recently in 2021. The waters of its Waitemata Harbour have been the scene of many a dramatic sailing race with surrounding hills and harbour covered with passionate spectators.

This tour is a chance to get out on Auckland harbour and crew a genuine America’s Cup yacht – the Formula One cars of wind-powered racing. You’ll experience the performance of an amazing sailing machine and the skills involved in getting it to go fast while seeing Auckland from the sea.

3. Glass Bottom Boat Cathedral Cove

You may already know Cathedral Cove. It has featured as location on big and small screens, including in the Narnia movies, and its famous natural arch is one of Aotearoa’s most photographed natural features.

Visit this stunningly beautiful cove and cruising the surrounding coastline on a glass boat. It opens up a whole new perspective on the beauty of the local area. Marvel at the marine life through the glass bottom or grab a snorkel and get a little closer to it.

4. Private Cruise on Lake Rotoiti on “Tiua”

Heading into the central North Island might take you away from the sea, but the Volcanic Plateau’s natural wonders include many lakes. The two main towns of the plateau, Rotorua & Taupo Nui a Tia, made our list of popular larger places to visit in New Zealand and sit beside namesake lakes. If you’re visiting the area, you must get out on one of the local lakes.

Is Rotorua on your Aotearoa wish list? Consider joining the crew of Tiua for a cruise. Sailing, fishing, natural hot pools, Maori legends, bush walk opportunities fine wine and food, and knowledgeable local guides. This private boat trip has it all. Cruise the bays and coves of Lake Rotoiti, one of several lakes near Rotorua.

5. Lake Taupo Cruise and Maori Rock Carvings

Lake Taupo’s Mine Bay Carvings

About an hour south of Rotorua, Lake Taupo is New Zealand’s largest lake. It is characteristically busy with small boats whizzing to and fro, or idling slowly along with lines over the back tempting local trout.

Join the boating crowd on a trip with a difference. Your destination on this cruise across the lake is one of New Zealand’s most extraordinary art works, The Ngatoroirangi Mine Bay Maori Rock Carvings.

Enjoy a muffin or a hot drink as you take in the beauty of the lake and its surrounds as you travel to the carvings. A gift from a local artist and visible only from a boat, this is an artwork many people have only seen in pictures. The main 10-metre-tall carving represents, Maori navigator, Ngatoroirangi who guided local tribes/iwi to the area, but the carvings include Celtic designs.

6. Jet Boat Pipiriki

In the early days of Aotearoa’s habitation by Maori, rivers provided essential routes through dense forest. And awa/rivers are taonga/treasures to this day. Iwi/tribes have very special relationships with their rivers. Indeed, the Whanganui River, in particular, holds the legal status of a person because of its significance to local iwi.

Once a major travel route from the coast to the central North Island, New Zealand’s third longest river still offers access to the tightly packed hills and pristine forest of the area. Hop aboard a jet boat (a local invention ideal for navigating sometimes shallow water) to travel 30km upriver from Whanganui on this enthralling trip.

Speed along past bush clad hills, ferns, caves, rapids and other unique scenery. Then enjoy a short bush walk to the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere”, intriguing remnant of a failed attempt to turn a rugged remote area into farms for soldiers returning from war.

7. Interislander Cook Strait Ferry

Interislander Ferry in the Marlborough Sounds

Crossing from North to South Island or vice versa most New Zealand tours include a short voyage on the largest “boat” our list of trips offers. The Cook Strait Ferry may be a means to move buses, cars and even trains between islands. But it is also a stunningly picturesque short voyage.

Heading south, you’ll enjoy three and a half hours of contrasting scenery as you cruise out through Wellington harbour taking in views of the capital’s seaside suburbs. Then it’s a trip across the sometimes turbulent Cook Strait. And then you cruise through the relatively calm but beautiful fiords of the Marlborough Sounds to Picton, gateway to the South Island.

Including a Boat Trip in Your North Island Tour

Many North Island tours include boat trips and cruises. We’d encourage you to get out on the water with some locals while you’re in our country. Talk to one of our tour specialists if you’d like help finding a New Zealand escorted holiday experience that includes a particular boat trip.