Bay of Islands- tender port plz help

Bay of Islands is a tender port so we were trying to talk ourselves into doing a ship sponsored excursion for ease. Since Celebrity doesn't have any tours that appeal to us we are considering an independent tour of the Puketi Forest through Viator. The issue is the ship arrives at 7am and the tour meets at 8:45am. Do you think this is doable? We hate to reserve the tour and miss it due to not getting an early tender. Any suggestions or advice?

We have not used Viator before and I understand that they are a 3rd party company. Does anyone have suggestions on a private tour company for this port?

Thank you-

Hi-

Our roll call for the Solstice January 19 sailing has a link posted by CruisingBrian listing all shore excursions organized by various members- it's a tab under his roll call list.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2037735. You might find links to private tours for Bay of Islands or email addresses of the organizers to help you out.

In my research for this port, I've been warned by boat tour operators not to prepay for cruises that depart Paihia at 9am as there is no guarantee we'd be able to arrive at the dock by then.

Personally, I'd not book a tour with set departure times. I'm hoping we do get to Paihia in time for either Fuller's or Explore's 9am Hole-in-the-Rock cruises, but if not, there is an 11 am cruise option from Fuller's or the wild Mack Attack boat that leaves at 10.

Good Luck!