Black Cat Cruises hosted a boat full of wonderful tourism industry insiders ahead of the busy summer season. We headed out on the evening of Tuesday November 21st for two hours aboard the Canterbury Cat on Lyttelton harbour. Guests were serenaded by the sounds of a harpist, sipped on bubbles and kiwi beer, feasted on local cuisine and relaxed at times with an on board masseuse...all while taking in the sights and sounds of the beautiful peninsula as we cruised across the harbour. The Canterbury Cat is available for private hire all year round. Just contact our Lyttelton team for more information...

2 days, 20 local agents, 8 Akaroa Must Do's..... a big thank you to Akaroa French Connection Shuttle, Akaroa Village Inn, Pohatu Penguins, Akaroa Cooking School, Akaroa Jet...and of course the Akaroa Harbour Nature Cruise & Swimming WIth Dolphins crew at Black Cat Cruises!

New Zealand based Hero Workshops hosted a Hero Meet-Up on Quail Island in association with Fujifilm, The photo Warehouse and of course our team at Black Cat Cruises. 70+ photographers ventured over to Quail Island prior to it being open to the public in October to photograph from day to dusk! Vote for you favourite image to win! Black Cat Cruises will donate $1 for every vote (up to $500) to the Quail Island Conservation Trust. The winning photographer and a lucky voter will both receive two ferry tickets to Quail Island for this summer! * Competition cover image by Rob Dickinson from Hero Workshops

Akaroa harbour is a stunning destination full of wildlife all year round! Black Cat Cruises challenged awesome New Zealand based photographers to come out with us mid-winter to get the most epic Winter Seafari shot from our Akaroa Harbour Nature Cruise and Swimming With Dolphins experience. Vote for your favourite image and for every vote we will donate $1 to the New Zealand Whale and Dolphin Trust!* You will also go in the draw to win either an Akaroa Harbour Nature Cruise of Swimming With Dolphins experience!

*up to $1,000

Blackcat on Facebook Auto-moderation

To celebrate Thane passing his 3 month probation with The Rock they decided to fly the team and their listeners down to Christchurch and join us on board the Canterbury Cat for an afternoon of fun and celebrations including food, drinks, a live band and even a tattoo artist!

MORE FM’s SUMMER SAILING TO QUAIL ISLAND

See the best content from around the web hand picked for you.

Win a private Swimming With Dolphins experience for you and your squad (up to 10 in total) with us in Akaroa! Simply snap a pic of you and your squad and upload it here. Entries close March 31st, 2017.

As The Bachelor NZ season almost comes to an end Jordan and Fleur fulfill a lifelong dream to swim with the hector's dolphins with us in Akaroa as they go on their fantasy date. Here are some snaps from the TV3 footage we thought we'd share!

We've searched the web for the best images and hand picked them to showcase beautiful Diamond Harbour.

Check out what's happening around the Lyttelton harbour basin in this great little gallery.

Check out the best of Swimming with Dolphins in Akaroa

Wow, great photos from Akaroa

On October 26th 1985 Ron Bingham and his wife Durelle officially started Black Cat Cruises, Akaroa's first daily nature harbour cruise operator. 30 years later and Black Cat Cruises offer both the Akaroa Harbour Nature Cruise, Swimming With Dolphins and operates the Quail Island and Diamond Harbour ferry. Over this time the company has become the leading tourism provider on Banks Peninsula. Over it's 30 years it became re-cognised as New Zealand's first ever eco-tourism operator, has won numerous awards including the New Zealand Supreme Tourism Award, is the only Akaroa operator to have the Qualmark Enviro-Gold award and is now the first in Akaroa to be recognised by the Department of Conservation as a 'SMART' operator. The founders of our company had a passion for our peninsula and it's marine inhabitants. To this day a portion of all of our ticket sales goes towards the education and conservation of Hector's dolphins, the worlds rarest and smallest. We decided to throw a wonderful party with Black Cat's friends and family to celebrate success and look forward to a prosperous and sustainable future.

We're celebrating 30 years of Black Cat with The Breeze and a summer BBQ on Quail Island. We've taken 80 guests over today for a summer starter that we hope they won't forget!

Take a sneak peek behind the scenes at the funny and serious part of running our business.

WIN A GoPro: 1. Enter your photo to go into the draw 2. Share the photo with your friends to get more votes 3. Each vote counts as an entry so the more votes you have the better chance you have of winning! WIN $100 CASH: simply vote for your favourite photo

Win a weekend in Akaroa for you and your family this summer. Simply upload your Quail Island photo to enter!

Take a photo of your Diamond Harbour experience and win a $300 Macpac voucher. There's also a 2nd prize of a $100 Freemans Dining Room Voucher and 3 $50 spot prizes of $50 Metro, Macpac and Freemans vouchers up for grabs!

Simply upload a photo from your time in Akaroa this summer and you will be entered into the draw to win an iPad. Each vote counts as an entry so the more votes you get the more chance you have of winning! We are also offering the chance to win an iPad mini simply just for voting on your favorite picture.....

Celebrating French Fest 2015

Come and meet the dedicated group of people who turn a boat ride into a world class experience.

Todays photos of beautiful Quail Island

Here is some of our handpicked new items appearing in local media.

Here is the latest from the Black Cat Cruises social channels

Here's a few of our latest projects and initiatives aimed at giving back to our community and conservation.

Have a look at the best photos from todays cruises

Here is a collection of our recent photo contests and winners.

We reveal top tips, news and views from around the Peninsula.