Waikato River Explorer Answers Calls for Park & Ride Ferry Service
“It’ll be Like the Orbiter,” says Darren Mills

Wednesday 5 April 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On 9 March, Hamilton’s iconic River Cruise service, the Waikato River Explorer, kicked off from its new launch space at Day’s Park.

This signalled the realisation of a long-term plan by Waikato River Explorer managing director Darren Mills.

“Ultimately we want to be like the Orbiter, just stopping off at stops every five or ten minutes along the river and have the café and bar open all day,” says Mr Mills.

Mr Mills says the idea of supplying this service is something which has been on his mind for some time.

“We’ve always said once the council puts the facilities in, we’ll bring a second boat on, because then the river will be able to support two boats. At the moment, obviously, there’s nowhere to park another boat.

“There are all sorts of things happening with developments in the city, which is bloody good but a while off yet. Meanwhile, we wanted to get the ball rolling and look at what other jetties we could use.

“We can’t do anything in the city at the moment but we can use Swarbrick’s landing, which is where we’d already been doing a lot of drop offs for our Chinese and Korean groups which come on board.”

Mr Mills says there has been a gaping hole in the market for an alternative way to travel through Hamilton without adding to traffic congestion on the roads – and the obvious way is to utilise the river.

“There’s a good car park at Day’s Park so you can leave your car and not have to go all the way to the gardens, which makes things easy for commuters and gets more cars off the road.

“Or, if you’re cycling or walking along the riverside, you put your bike on board, plant yourself on board and we’ll take you to the gardens.”

The Waikato River Explorer departs Swarbrick Landing/Day’s Park at 10am. The boat has a fully licensed café on board for the 50-minute cruise to Hamilton Gardens. The return journey leaves the Gardens at 1pm for the 30-minute cruise back to Swarbrick’s Landing.

Mr Mills hopes to have a second boat on the river by the beginning of next year.
He says his long term goals for the Waikato River Explorer include being fully integrated with the national cycle way, “which is going to be increasing its footprint along the sides of the river,” and to be a vital link with the tourist chain in the city.

“We’re all about making the first move and hoping the council keeps up.”

ends

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