Explore Group
Explore Group
4.5
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Monday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Tuesday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Wednesday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Thursday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Friday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Saturday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Sunday
8:00 AM - 7:00 PM
About
Feel the thrill of sailing an authentic America's Cup yacht. Take the helm to help steer on course or work hard on the grinders to hoist the mainsail during this hands on sailing adventure on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour.
Auckland Central, New Zealand

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Tours and Tickets by Explore Group
Dinner
2–3 hours
Free cancellation
Not sure? You can cancel this reservation up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund.
Recommended by 91% of travelers
This number is based on the percentage of all Tripadvisor reviews for this product that have a bubble rating of 4 or higher
from
$92.90
per adult
Travelers talk about
(28 reviews)
Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
Popular mentions

4.5
583 reviews
Excellent
439
Very good
88
Average
19
Poor
17
Terrible
20

AmericaOverEasy
Newport, Australia379 contributions
Feb 2020
Huge fun! Got to 'take the helm' and Capt. the ship! Stiff breese was nothing short of brilliant! Crew....delightful. and they fed us lunch aas well! Swell, Without the 'swells'...
Written June 20, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

mrsagf
washington dc881 contributions
Oct 2013 • Friends
After 24 hours of flying from the US, I knew I'd be too tired to function for the evening, but I did not want to waste my limited time in Auckland, either. This was the perfect solution. Tons of fresh air, pleasant young crew, and 12 of us from 8 nations all heading for the harbor bridge while looking for the Southern Cross. Yes, you sit for an hour on the boat having dinner. Fine with me. They could have put anything in front of me, considering my exhaustion, but it was dinner from one of Auckland's leading seafood restaurants (which I had researched independently in advance). The boat is docked only paces from Kermadec Ocean Fresh Restaurant, so dinner hadn't been trucked in hours before. Prawn and avocado starter, South Island farm-raised salmon, pearl couscous with raisins, mesclun salad, creme brulee. Then hoist anchor for an hour of sailing. Checked into hotel at 4:30, at the dock at 6, back at hotel by 8:30. In NZ, it's all about the water, and this was a perfect introduction.
Written September 10, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Ohhhlie
1 contribution
Nov 2014
It was our fam's 1st time to see the island!
Found it very convenient to be on this trip... Picked up to & fro the wharf! Saves u time of walking when day is done...
gave us good insights of the island, tips where to go, where to eat 😜
Had a good time wd the accomodating wd sense of humor host Grant 😉
Keep it up! Til next time 👍
Written November 22, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

kerryalina
Melbourne, Australia8 contributions
May 2022
I have so many regrets about booking Explore Group's Tikapa Moana Whale & Dolphin Watching Cruise.

It was billed as a seven hour cruise, including a 1.5 hour stopover at Tiritiri Matangi island. So we expected a 5.5 hour tour/cruise, which should be more than enough time to see some wildlife!

No. This tour is combined with the regular ferry to Tiritiri Matangi island, so the first 1.5 hours are spent in silence as we head to TM island to drop off the day's visitors. We should have brought a book to occupy ourselves. At least now the tour would start!

Part of the joy of tours and cruises is the patter of the guide and the interesting facts you learn about the area you're in, or the animals you see. But... not in this case. There was a five minute pre-recorded Maori introduction and explanation of how the islands being "bought" by the English, a brief announcement by the skipper that we were looking for specific birds that usually denote a whale or dolphin under the water, and then... nothing.

We literally drove around in silence for 2.5 hours.

The fact that we didn't see any whales or dolphins (and didn't even try for the penguins or seals also mentioned on the tour page) is almost beside the point. Even if we had seen one, those few minutes would not have made up for the hours of boredom before and after.

We were dropped off at Tiritiri Matangi for our brief visit (which was, to be fair, utterly gorgeous) and then piled back on to the boat for... another 1.5 hour ferry ride in silence.

So of our seven hour cruise, fully three hours were wasted as a non-advertised ferry service, and the remaining two and a half hours of the "tour" were spent in complete silence staring out the window at nothing. For this we paid $150 each.

Since we did not see any wildlife, we were offered a voucher to attend the same cruise again. This is of little use to us as we flew home the following day.

0/10. Do not recommend.
Written May 30, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Colleen K
Melbourne, Australia17 contributions
Mar 2023 • Friends
Went on the Auckland Harbour dinner cruise last night on the yacht Defiance Crew were great. Food was disappointing. Main meal was cold. Steak. Mash and broccolini. Not very pleasant and to have paid $150 it’s not cheap. While the flavour was good it didn’t in any favours being so cold. However the scenery coming in to Auckland is stunning and worth seeing.
Written March 13, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

steveAuckland
Auckland Central, New Zealand36 contributions
Nov 2014 • Couples
Dinner cruise went like this...........left Viaduct Harbour.....straight to Westhaven Marina 10 min.......tied up to a pole.......all downstairs for a meal, no view..........after dinner sail under Harbour Bridge to Birkenhead...sails back to Viaduct Harbour.......all over !!!
Written November 20, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Robert H
Seattle, WA12 contributions
Jan 2015 • Family
Having done a similar America's Cup sailing experience with a friend years ago, I was excited to take my kids (11 and 13 years old) on this and show them how much fun sailing could be. The weather was perfect (sunny with a moderate breeze), so I called and booked this for the three of us. I was required to and paid the NZ$390 charge over the phone, gave them my mobile number and email address, and promptly received an email receipt. Not once during the phone call did Amy (if I recall her name correctly) mention that a minimum number of people were required and that there was any risk of this not proceeding. Instead, she simply told us to be sure to arrive at the pier by 4:45PM for a 5:00 PM sailing.

With this booking in hand, we worked our last afternoon in Auckland around this activity - deciding against a couple of other great choices. We were excited and arrived early (at 4:30PM) to their kiosk only to learn that they have a minimum tour size of 10 people and that only two other people had signed up. This was the first I'd heard of this, but I then went through the fine print on the third page of my email receipt, which states, "Explore Group... reserve(s) the right to cancel any trip for any reason, including due to insufficient passenger numbers…." The disclaimer was certainly there, but equally certainly this was neither communicated directly nor was it easy to find - especially on a mobile device.

About 4:45 PM, another couple expressed interest in going - making it 7. With that couple, we even offered to pay for 10 people, but were told that they needed a minimum number of people to work the boats. At that point, the boats came in from a packed prior cruise (match racing) and the crews immediately set to work putting the boats away for the evening. They certainly weren’t waiting to see if anyone else would want to join or looking for ways to make this work for their customers.

The fact of the matter is that Explore Group didn't level with us. At some point, they knew that our cruise was unlikely to go. (Having only 5 booked on our sail compared to something around 40 on the prior match racing sail - which wasn't offered to me when I called.) Further, they had my email address (obviously, because they used it) and my mobile number. Not only did they neglect to tell me the conditions under which I was booking when I paid, but they also neglected to reach out to me when it became obvious that the cruise wasn't going to go. Finally, they had more than enough crew members on the dock to make up the last 3 people, but they further decided to prioritize their profits over what they lead their customers to believe.

As a result of their practices, we wasted a good chunk of our last afternoon in Auckland. Some airlines used to do this, too, but customers finally got sick of it and spoke out. The same applies here.

Please be aware when booking with this company that you may not be told the whole truth and that they are likely to cancel whenever it suits them.
Written January 1, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Steve S
Gold Coast2 contributions
Feb 2014 • Couples
2.5 hour dinner cruise included 1.5 hours sitting at the berth having dinner before we even left. Other people's meal were stuffed up completely, it was worse than Faulty Towers. The 1 hour sail on the harbour was good but not worth 1/4 the amount we paid. Complaints were ignored. If you are considering this tour, try something else.
Written February 1, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Olivia C
Canada9 contributions
Dec 2017 • Couples
We were there for the Christmas eve cruise and dinner. the view was great. the food was not good. it was barely warm, not elegant in presentation. they crew parked us in a remote harbour with not view to eat our dinner. It was not romantic. We were very disappointed at the excursion. Not worth the money and a real waste of our time.
Written December 24, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Pritchp
Bedford, UK265 contributions
Aug 2012 • Couples
Booked this but must confess my was not looking forward to it. It was a truly great experience. Learnt a lot about sailing and was amazed at the sipped we made under sail. A must do experience whilst in NZ
Written August 26, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Explore Group (Auckland Central) - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go

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