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A Day at the Poor Knights Islands

Our trip on the Perfect Day Ocean Cruise was an amazing experience. Great crew and stunning weather really did make the perfect day for us!

A Perfect Day Ocean Cruise, Tutukaka

Our family trip to the world renowned Poor Knights Islands exceeded our expectations. It was my first time visiting the islands with my husband and three boys (ages 14,12 and 5).

We set off from Tutukaka Marina at 11am (a reasonable hour I thought) and made our way through slightly choppy sea to the islands. Along the way our skipper Luke provided commentary about the region, and kept us informed about each natural attraction we passed.

We were lucky to have awesome weather as it was raining the day before and we decided to delay our trip for one day. It took about 40 minutes to get to our spot where we would spend the day. Once we arrived at the sheltered bay our amazingly helpful crew told us to help ourselves to lunch and drinks which were available all day. My corned beef sandwich was very tasty, as was the fresh fruit which was also provided.

Luke and the crew gave us the run down of our agenda for the day which included free use of the many water activities onboard which were kayaks, paddleboards, snorkelling gear and wet suits. Straight in to it, my boys and the other family we were travelling with got into the water from the deck off the back of the boat.

The crew were excellent with the less confident swimmers, and suggested the use of life jackets to the younger swimmers. My 5 year old Jack was made to wear a life jacket at all times, and was well looked after near the water. Luke and Jack sat together on the back deck, feet in water blowing sea water through pool noodles at the swimmers.

After we had spent a few hours anchored, and everyone had finished enjoying themselves in the water, we were taken on a tour around the islands with full commentary. The boat took us in to the worlds largest sea cave, where we were told the cave was popular with musicians such as the Finn brothers because of it’s amazing acoustics.

The 11 million year old islands are a marine and nature reserve which provided untouched scenery and abundant wildlife.

We then made our way back to Tutukaka, going through yet another sea cave and around the islands back in to open sea.

Perfect Day provided an amazing experience visiting this very special and sacred region. Being educated about the area along the way opened our minds to why the Poor Knights Islands are classed as one of the worlds premier marine reserves.