Review: Bioluminescence Kayak Tour Near Auckland, New Zealand

One of my dreams has always been to see bioluminescence. I saw it in Seattle once and also very briefly during my trip to the Great Barrier Reef in 2023, but I’ve never had a full experience with it.

After visiting Australia in 2023 I went to New Zealand and stayed in Auckland for a few nights. While there I discovered that they have tours to kayak at night to see this bioluminescence. However, it was historically windy while I was there and all the tours were cancelled.

So when I returned to Auckland in 2025 and knew I would be staying for about 6 weeks instead of a handful of days, I was determined to try again. Since these glowy creatures seem to be understandably fickle, I booked a tour soon after I landed so there would be plenty of time to reschedule if needed – and I’m glad I did.

Below I’ll go into all the details of what happened during this Bioluminescence Kayak Tour that we paid $68.94 USD per person to experience.

Scheduling

I booked this tour via my beloved Viator because of its free cancellation with a full refund up to 24 hours before any tour. I received a confirmation email and a note that I would hear more information about where to meet by 4pm on the day of the tour.

However, at 4pm I got this message:

Hello Everyone,

Sorry to do this, but tonight’s (Monday the 17th February 2025) Bioluminescence tour is cancelled due to the weather conditions. The forecasted weather is on the limit of our operational safety, so we have made the decision to cancel tonight’s trip. We can try to find another date for you to rebook on, or we can refund you. Can you please let me know your preference?

Kind regards,

Peter

Canoe & Kayak Operations Manager 

Fair enough – it was pouring rain and that doesn’t sound like a good time to kayak. I responded and told them I would prefer to go on Wednesday of that week and was told we had been confirmed for Wednesday.

Confirmation

At 11am on the day of the tour I got this message:

Tonight’s Bioluminescence Tour meeting location is Waiake Beach, near the boat ramp and changing rooms. The address is 925 Beach Road, Waiake, Auckland 0632. Your guides will be there to greet you.

If you are there ready to paddle for our start time of 8.00 pm, that would be best thank you. A 7.45pm arrival is encouraged to keep our schedule.

We provide everyone with a well-fitting Personal Floatation Devices (PFD). You will be paddling in Double Sit-On-Top kayaks. Please note we have a maximum person weight limit of 120 kg or 265 pounds or 19 stone. If you are over this weight you may not be able to stay upright on the kayak and unless you are stable, you will not be able to proceed with the tour. There are no refunds in this situation.

Clothing and Footwear to bring:

• No jeans allowed—swim shorts or quick-drying clothes are preferred, along with warm layers like fleece or merino wool, a beanie just in case, and a windproof or rain jacket.
• Footwear: We recommend reef shoes if you have them. Alternatively, any secure footwear that you don’t mind getting wet will work, such as sports sandals (with back straps), water shoes, or even old sneakers. Please also bring a change of shoes for after the tour. Barefoot is not an option on the tour, as the areas we paddle in have oyster and other wildlife that may hurt bare feet in the unlikely event of a capsize.
• Towel and change of clothes: Don’t forget to bring a towel and a change of clothes for after the tour as well.

You can keep your bags, electronics, keys and other belongings in the Canoe & Kayak car while we are kayaking. Happy to assist with any comments or questions.

Kind regards,
Peter

And at 3:30pm I also got a text with the address. So thorough!

The Tour

Getting There

My Partner and I took an Uber from Auckland to Waiake Beach. It cost $51.25 NZD ($30.91 USD). We left at 7pm and arrived at 7:25pm for a 7:45pm meeting time.

We explored the beach and watched birds and the waves until a car towing kayaks drove onto the beach with the tour logo on it. We walked up at 7:45pm and introduced ourselves.

Our tour guides were named Santiago and Josh and there were 5 other people on the tour with us. The guides gave us a form to read and sign along with a form to fill out our names, email addresses, illnesses and if we consent to being photographed for promo materials.

The guide also let us leave our bags in their car so things like our phones and changes of clothes wouldn’t get wet.

Kayaking

We then got in our kayaks – two people per kayak. My Partner and I shared one. We’d ocean kayaked before so it wasn’t difficult for us.

We then followed one of our guides to a less wavy portion of the ocean and while we waited for the sunset, our guides taught us about bioluminescence. They said that in this area there are 5 types that they see, the most common being ones they call Big Blue and Galaxy.

Big Blue is the burst of bright blue in the waves that I knew as bioluminescence. And Galaxy looks like flashing sparks. I had no idea there are different kinds.

While we were waiting, I started looking at the stars and planets that were emerging from the dark.

In addition to a beautiful sunset, I saw Venus, Jupiter, Mars and southern hemisphere constellations like the Southern Cross. And finally when it was dark enough, we saw the Milky Way, which was absolutely beautiful and only maybe the 3rd time in my life that I’ve been somewhere dark enough to see it so clearly.

I could also see the island of the Tiritiri Nature Reserve in the distance, which hilariously I was visiting the next day (I’m writing a whole post about that amazing experience that I’ll share when it’s done).

Once it was dark, the tour guides turned off lights that were located on a pole at the back of our kayaks so we could see the bioluminescence. They said that it’s easier to see in darker environments so ideally we would look on the side of our kayak that was away from the sunset.

Only a few minutes later we saw sparks of Galaxy in the water when we moved it. We put our hands in the water and waved it in figure 8s and saw sparks come off of our hands.

The guide suggested we put our closed fist in the water and then open it quickly and when we did, it looked like magic was coming from our hands. It was super cool.

We saw a lot of Galaxy that night and had a great time trailing our hands through the water while kayaking through it and seeing sparks come off our hands and the side of the kayak.

We didn’t see Big Blue that night, but apparently that’s the only type of the 5 kinds of bioluminescence here that is able to be captured on camera so it makes sense that it became the marketing face of bioluminescence. I guess my search for a full Big Blue experience continues 🙂 .

Afterward

The guides then turned our kayak lights back on and we headed back to shore. Once we got out of our kayaks, the guides handed out seat liners so we didn’t get our car seats wet on the way home, which I appreciated.

I ended up using that as a wet clothes bag instead since I had brought a change of clothes. We were directed towards the public changing rooms at the beach that were big open rooms, most of which could have been seen when someone opened the door.

So heads up if you’re shy about changing around strangers 🙂 . There are also restroom stalls you can use instead. I changed my wet clothes to dry ones, stuffed my wet ones in a bag and headed to catch an Uber home.

Photo Confusion

The only strange thing that happened was that after the tour, we were saying goodbye and one of the guides said to contact the company to get photos of that night. I hadn’t realized they had been taking photos and hadn’t gotten many myself on my GoPro.

So I reached out and asked for the photos and instead of responding to me, I just received a canned response about our time and to contact them if we had any issues and “We would really appreciate if you could take a couple of minutes to share your positive experience with others through Trip Advisor” which is a little presumptuous 😉 .

I did have a lovely time, but the sentence sounds like you only want people who had positive experiences to review it. Anyway, nowhere in the response was a photo so I’m not sure what the guide on my tour meant.

However, a few days later I got a text from Santiago with photos of our excursion so that all worked out. I’m just still not sure if that’s a new offering or standard practice, but it was cool to see 🙂 .

The Review

I had a great time on this Bioluminescence Kayak Tour! The employees were proactive to tell me when our first tour date was cancelled because of weather and were great about rescheduling.

The experience was seamless, the guides were wonderful and everything was on time with clear instructions, which I really appreciate. I’m planning to take the same tour again so I can hopefully see Big Blue the next time I’m in Auckland.

Things To Bring

I went on this tour in February, which is summer in New Zealand. I suspect that the list of recommended clothing provided was for all year because it asked us to bring warm jackets, but we never needed them.

The day we went had a high of 76F and a low of 66F so even wet we were fine. I wore a tank top and shorts over my bikini and was comfortable the whole time.

I also wore flip flops that have a strap around the back of my foot so they don’t fly off in the ocean. Another woman had regular flip flops that she ingeniously tied a string behind her ankle to secure her shoes and it worked for the whole excursion!

Here are the exact things I brought on this trip in case it’s helpful:

• Collapsible Osprey Daypack
• Tank Top
• Shorts
• Flip Flops (with backstrap)
• Travel Towel
• A New Shirt
• Loose Pants
• Socks
• Shoes
• GoPro
• GoPro Floating Handle

I didn’t end up using the GoPro to capture the bioluminescence since it wasn’t the type to be seen on film. As for my change of clothes, I just brought things that were easy to slip into, but I chose loose pants and shoes with socks, which turned out to not be ideal because they were hard to get on my wet and sandy body. So learn from my mistakes and bring shorts or a dress to make your life easier.

Conclusion

I would highly recommend this Bioluminescence Kayak Tour to anyone in Auckland, New Zealand. And if you’re somewhere else in the world that has bioluminescence, I highly suggest you check it out either with trained tour guides or for free by just going to the beach. It’s an incredible sight to see.