Safety Plan

Waiatoto River Safari is open for business and remains one of the best boat tours in New Zealand, as voted by Lonely Planet.

Your safety and comfort is always our number one priority, that’s why we offer a tour with a difference, no speedy donuts or spins but with plenty of interesting stops and a good handful of comfort thrown in.

Outdoors

You are doing an outdoor activity and there is spacing on the boat to social distance. We disinfect the boat and washrooms after each and every tour. If you need to cancel your booking due to Covid-19, we guarantee you a full refund. Please be aware that you are in nature and please dress so accordingly. We recommend closed in footware, socks, trousers and layers with a spare jacket and sun protection. Don’t forget your camera or phone, they won’t get wet from the river water. We provide insect repellant on the boat.

Mobility

Upon booking, let us know if you need a hand. We can take people in wheelchairs. The boat is purpose built for older folk in mind, there is a small step into the boat then onto the seat and then onto the floor, we ask you to do this to protect your joints. We know how important it is to look after our bodies as we mature so that is why we have designed the boat for easy access. If you can get in and out of your vehicle ok, you will not need any assistance to board the boat, however, if you’d like a hand just let us know.

Safety record

Before jet boating, we were commercial pilots for many years, so we know what it is like to be very careful when we are out in a remote environment. Our river safari is proudly incident free over the last 11 years of our ownership and the company has 100% safety record since its early beginnings in 1997. We have a sign-in process before every tour commences, which allows you to check out our indemnity form and let us know of any medical conditions you would like us to know about.

Sustainability

We are proud to be working to off set our carbon foot print by 2025. We believe in looking after our environment. Please help us do this by leaving only foot prints and taking away wonderful memories and photos. We have taken the Tiaki Promise and the Tourism Sustainability Commitment which consists of 4 elements and a set of 12 commitments around economic, visitor, community and environment. The Tiake Promise means we will care for land, sea and nature, treading lightly and leaving no trace. Tavel safely, showing care and consideration for all, respecting culture and tavelling with an open heart and mind. Please join us as we share our learnings from this journey with you, so you may make a greater difference in our country.

How you help us

For each and every person that comes on the boat, we pay a portion of your fare towards the Haast-Tokoeka kiwi breeding programme. There is a lot of work that goes into this from Department of Conservation, contractors and volunteers. We thank you for that and you will learn on our tour how the Kiwi numbers were just a handful 23 years ago to around 650 birds today. Any donations made to us go directly to the local Haast school which currently has just 7 children attending.

Health and safety

Waiatoto River Safari Ltd has a full Safe Operational Plan which is externally audited by Maritime New Zealand and fully complies with Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. We have yearly audits.

Waiatoto River Safari runs an internal maintenance programme that surpasses external requirements and uses world-leading equipment to enable the highest safety levels.