Fabulous tour with Paul (owner of Tauranga Tasting Tours) .. Paul took us to the Waitomo Caves and the Kiwi House. The tour was extensive and Paul was professional and so knowledgeable! We loved the tour to see the glowworms and we even got to see a Kiwi bird at the sanctuary (very exciting because these birds are nocturnal and very elusive!). We had a wonderful day and highly recommend this tour company!

The tour was pretty good but for the unnecessary commentary from our guide Paul. He was especially harsh when describing properties now owned by The Māori and how they've done nothing with it 'as usual'. I personally did not appreciate his negative slant on the entire Māori population. He should have kept his predudices to himself. It was a real spoiler for us. The places he took us to , the caves, the Kiwi House and the honey producer were great, however his lunch spot was seedy with exceptionally poor service. I would not recommend this tour with this particular guide. Time for him to retire.

Excellent day on. Paul, thank you so much for the tour! The Waitomo cave is incredible! It was an informative conversation and a pleasant journey!

As promised, we were met at the port gate by our guide, Paul Marston. As we were the only ones, we rode in Paul's beautifully maintained Toyota Crown. While disappointing that there was only one winery in the area, Paul had a full day scheduled. We started with a drive to see the area, highlighted by a high elevation lookout point, which showed off the huge port. Then a nice beer and cider tasting, followed by lunch at a marina. Full meal and drink, delicious. Then, the visit to Leveret winery. As a former wine industry employee, Paul gave an informative tasting from bubbles to reds, 8 wines, I believe. Then, back to the marina, where we enjoyed a treat and cocktail. Paul was easy and talk with and the day passed quickly. Kudos to his quick response to return my prescription eyeglasses in forgot in the car before we sailed away.

The tour guide was very knowledgeable about wine but also very opinionated to the point of being offensive. The restaurant was wonderful, but the beer stop and cocktail/dessert stops were awful. We were very disappointed.

My sister and I had a wonderful time visiting a winery, a brewery, a nice restaurant, and a bar restaurant near the Marina in Tauranga. Our tour guide, Paul, was the best. He was very knowledgeable and shared local information while driving us around. Each location we visited was excellent. I highly recommend this tour if you want to get local knowledge and visit several places without having to drive!

Great experience! It was also very relaxing traveling throught the countryside. Paul, our guide/chauffeur, is a very kind person and he gave plenty of informations to us. Thank you Paul.

Paul was an excellent guide! A Well paced day, with great quality food, wine, beer and cider throughout!

We did wine testing and cider factory for our friends leaving party. Lyn and Paul were great! Paul had awssome knowledge about wine and was very nice to talk to. We were prety loud girls, but he didn't mind. Great experience for anyone! When my family will come over from Európe i will definitely book this tour again! Highly recommend! Thank you! Tina and girls ;-)

What a fun day out with like minded people. We visited a wide variety of artisans who happily shared the knowledge and back stories. We got to taste, cheese, Macadamias, wine,chocolate and a great lunch at a seaside cafe. We discovered people and food not generally known, even to the locals. Would go again.

The. Company is owner operated by Lyn and Paul, both of whom were a pleasure to deal with. The tour was 10 people which made if feel more like a group of friends rather than just a number on bigger tours. We were picked up from and returned to our home and because there were two of us we got a discount. First part of call was Elspeths Bakery where we sat under a pohutokowa tree and sampled cream and jam scones and Danish pastry. Then it was off to the Crossing to visit Pepper and me and Tauranga Hemp Farm at both venue we had samples and a talk - very enjoyable. Then it was off to lunch decorated with edible flowers at Bloom Cafe in Decor Garden Centre, Bethlehem - lunch was delicious and afterwards we had a tour of the garden and a talk about growing veg and herbs which produced edible flowers. Next stop Cider O in Te Puna where we sampled the different varieties of cider, fortunately Paul knows about wine tasting so was able to tell us how to taste them so we got full benefit. Then it was off to Vetro on 3rd Ave for more tasting of interesting, unusual foods. The tour lasted roughly 8 hours from pick up to drop off and it was an extremely nice way to spend my birthday on the first day of summer. So thank you Paul for a wonderful day and maybe on the next tour we take we will meet your wife Lyn. Thank you for checking vaccination status I really appreciated that. I have posted some photos and we will definitely be back for other tours. Highly recommend this company.

We had a wonderful day exploring the Waitomo glow worm caves, kiwi sanctuary and the countryside of the Tauranga area. Our guide Bron was great. She is very informative and makes sure you get to see everything you want....including Hokey Pokey ice cream! Our tour was almost 7 hours long but the time flew as we enjoyed every minute of it. We would highly recommend this tour and company!

We chose to book this tour via Viator rather than through Viking Orion. In fact Viking did not offer a true tour of the glow worm caves. We found the tour guide, who is also the owner of Tauranga Tasting Tours, Paul just fabulous. We were in a small SUV (A very private personal tour) and rode throughout the very beautiful New Zealand Farmland (Though brown from drought). We saw many different items and Paul had significant knowledge of the Maori culture, the farm and dairy industry, Kiwi birds and fruit, glow worms, hydro power and Tauranga industry. This tour is a must. The glow worms were worth the long trip (About 2- 2 1/2 Hours). The tour was very nice. The caves are well guided and the worms were/are beautiful. We did see the pair of Kiwis in their nocturnal habitat. We had to move quickly to meet our cruise times, so we couldn't dally. We also ate local food for lunch that was quite interesting and good. This is a perfect reason why to book outside of the cruise line. The tour was priced better than most tours by Viking and was truly awesome.They got us back in plenty of time to re-embark as well. I cannot say enough good things about Paul.

We booked the Tour through Trip Advisor rather than on the Ship We were met outside the gate at Tauranga at 10am as planned and returned the the ship before any deadline 4.30pm.Paul our host was brilliant he had great wine knowledge and was a character when we visited the first winery we had a food platter for 2 that was to die for along with the wine tasting and the second winery the wines host was excellent and to finish off we had a tour of Tauranga and a cocktail and a wonderful dessert at the newly renovated old Post Office

Bron, our guide, met us right at the port and took us to the Waitomo Caves and on the way pointed out local sights. From there we went to The Kiwi House where we were lucky enough to spot 2 Kiwis. It was an excellent all day tour and we returned to the ship in a timely fashion.