Beachcomber Cruises Commitment to the Environment

Toitū te marae o Tāne, Toitū te marae o Tangaroa, Toitū te tāngata - If the land is well and the sea is well, the people will thrive.

Tiaki means to care for people and place.

‍The Tiaki Promise is a commitment to care for New Zealand, for now and for future generations. Beachcomber Cruises values align with Tiaki, and we wholeheartedly get behind the Tiaki Promise and encourage all visitors to Marlborough to act as guardians of Aotearoa New Zealand.

‘Tiaki Promise’ - an initiative by Tourism New Zealand and six partner organisations which encourages people to care for the taonga (treasure) that is this country of ours.

The story of Tiaki “connects us to care for our people, our place and our culture… We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors. We only borrow it from our children.”

The Guardians of this world – Aotearoa- Showing us the way, caring for our people, our place and our culture.

Papatūānuku (the earth mother) She’s the sand and ice, the fields and mountains. She is in the ground under our feet.

Rangi-nui (the sky father) At night, Ranginui shows us the way home. His stars guide us and connect us to those who came before us and those who will come after us.

Tangaroa (protector of the sea) Tangaroa is The Guardian who give us our oceans, lakes and rivers.

Tāne Mahuta (protector of the forest) The Guardian who breathed life into the world and gave us the wonders of the forest. Including the very air we breathe.

Support the Tiaki Promise while Travelling in New Zealand by following the below guidelines.

• Care for land, sea and nature, treading lightly and leaving no trace
• Travel safely, showing care and consideration for all*
• Respect culture, travelling with an open heart and mind
• And use the Tiaki hashtag to show your support

Gaining a Department of Conservation (DOC) concession as well as a DOC Marine Mammal Watching Permit means we can take our guests to visit the NZ Fur Seals and dolphins. We have absolute reverence for this special place, and it is our privilege to now share it with you.

We are proud to say we no longer use single use cups as every year New Zealanders throw away nearly 300 million disposable coffee cups – and only one out of every 400 is recycled.

Throwing away one cardboard cup doesn't seem like much, but multiply that by the number of free coffee cups we gave away each year and the difference a reusable cup can make is clear. Changing habits takes time, but it's worth it. The environment is crucial to our well-being and to our future, and we should take every opportunity, however small, to reduce harm.

There are less than 142 kākāpō alive today. This year Beachcomber Cruises have adopted 2 kākāpō Jem and Ralph donating over $200. This money directly supports funding for kākāpō health management, supplementary food and annual transmitter changes.

Beachcomber Cruises are proud to support Marlborough Sounds Restoration Trust. The Trust's flagship programme is the control of wilding pines throughout the Marlborough Sounds.

Wilding pines are a significant problem in the Sounds, undermining its scenic qualities and threatening native flora and fauna. In some parts of the Sounds wilding pines are overtaking native plants as the dominant species. In such cases, thick stands of pines present a major fire risk and can also reduce catchment water flows.

For the first time, through the Trust’s activities, a strategic and planned approach to wilding pine control will be undertaken in the Sounds and on a scale far larger than any work done previously.

Kaipupu Wildlife Sanctuary is a community project which aims to restore a 40 hectare 'mainland island' in Picton harbour. The Sanctuary offers amazing wildlife viewing, engaging school or group visits and volunteering opportunities.  Once a food collection site for Maori, Kaipupu translates from ‘kai’ meaning food and ‘pupu’ a type of shellfish. The 2.7km  circular walking track will take you through recovering native bush, old growth forest and our restoration zone. The bush clad hills are home to many of New Zealand’s unique native wildlife including tui, korimako (bellbird), piwakawaka (fantail), kereru (NZ woodpigeon), korora (little penguin), tree weta, raukawa gecko and waiharakeke grass skink. New Zealand fur seal can often be found lazing on the jetty over autumn and winter.  

Kaipupu Wildlife Sanctuary $3.00 donations

Beachcomber Cruises are proudly working together with Kaipupu Wildlife Sanctuary. With your help from community donations our aim is to enrich the community through restoration and guardianship of an indigenous Marlborough Sounds wildlife sanctuary.  We will achieve this through volunteerism, education and tourism. Your donations will help us to achieve our goal of creating a pest free haven for New Zealand's native flora and fauna by sponsoring new pests traps and planting new trees.

Beachcomber Cruises are thrilled to be awarded with the Qualmark Gold award. This award is such an honour and truly recognises the massive effort and commitment the team have given to benefit our travellers and the environment we travel through.

What is Qualmark you ask? Qualmark is New Zealand's official tourism quality assurance organisation and recognises excellence in sustainable business practices. Businesses are independently assessed by a Qualmark official and are awarded with a Bronze, Silver or Gold award based on their sustainable practices in health and safety, the environment, social/people and economic criteria.

"A Gold Qualmark Award recognises the best sustainable tourism businesses in New Zealand, with the delivery of exceptional customer experiences an integral part of everything they do. It identifies those businesses leading the way in making the New Zealand tourism industry a world class sustainable visitor destination".  - Qualmark NZ.

This means we're up there with the best in NZ!

Monitoring
Qualmark audited:

This means we have met minimum requirements in this area. Making sure we are actively participating in energy efficiency; conservation initiatives; waste management & community activities.
Monthly monitoring: fuel/electricity/land fill and recycling – we are always looking at ways of reducing our uses of resources.
Regular maintenance: of all vessels/vehicles
Waste Management: Recycling – plastics, tins, paper, glass

Minimise impact

We minimize direct impacts on the environment by monitoring our operations and continuing to be proactively involved in projects to protect and restore the biodiversity of the area. Working with employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, the local community and any other interested parties to identify their needs and support them in our commitment to the environment. Creating an understanding and responsibility to, minimize our daily impacts on the local environment. Identifying both short and long term effects of operations, and in response, reduce any negative effects to a minimum.

Caring for Our Natural Environment
We are privileged to have the abundance of marine life here in the Marlborough Sounds, and we don’t take this for granted. Our vision is to invest in and support the future wellbeing and sustainability of the local terrestrial and marine environment, for present and future generations, through tourism.

Environmental Sustainability
We are committed to providing our customers with a quality experience.  At the same time, we do everything possible to ensure our business operations have the minimum impact on the environment and our community. The long-term sustainability of our business is directly connected to the sustainability of our community and environment.

Our key sustainability initiatives are:

1. Beachcomber Cruises are constantly striving to minimise fuel consumption. We continue to invest heavily in the most fuel-efficient boat motors and other fuel-saving technologies. All of our boats have been fitted with electronic fuel gauges to help each boat skipper ensure they are running their boats as efficiently as possible at all times. In 2012, we invested in the establishment of a full workshop to service and maintain our boats. This has lead to massive improvements to the lifespan and efficiency of our equipment.
2. Beachcomber Cruises are always trying to reduce waste by reusing and recycling. We also offer our customers recycling facilities and encourage our customers to reuse containers and bottles whenever possible.
3. Beachcomber Cruises do everything we can to minimise our water usage by turning off taps when we are not directly using water.
4. Beachcomber Cruises support projects which have the purpose of enhancing, preserving or restoring the natural environment. We provide various forms of sponsorship and donations to local sports clubs, schools and other community groups throughout each year.
5. Beachcomber Cruises activity encourage our customers to act responsibly when they are cruises the sounds or walking the Queen Charlotte Track.