Until Friday 23 October the Rotoroa boat keeps its winter pattern: one morning sailing from Viaduct Harbour, Wednesday to Sunday, and one afternoon return. From Saturday 24 October, the start of Labour Weekend, it goes daily, with a second boat on weekends and public holidays and longer days ashore. Explore Group runs the ferry; the Rotoroa Island Trust runs the island.
Winter timetable to 23 October 2026; summer timetable from 24 October 2026, end date not yet published — checked 2 October 2026 Explore Group – Rotoroa Island ferry · 2026-10-02
Rotoroa's boat changes character on 24 October. Until then it is a five-day service: the 09:15 leaves the Viaduct from Wednesday to Sunday and on public holidays, and the 14:25 brings everyone back, roughly four and a half hours later on the island. Mondays and Tuesdays, nothing sails unless it is a holiday.
From Labour Weekend Explore adds Mondays and Tuesdays and lengthens the day. Monday to Thursday you are ashore for five hours fifty minutes and back at the Viaduct at 17:35; Fridays end an hour earlier, at 16:35. On weekends and public holidays an 11:30 joins the 09:15, and both return to Auckland at 17:35.
Check the spelling before you book: Rotoroa, with two o's, is an 80-hectare sanctuary in the Hauraki Gulf, not the lakeside city of Rotorua. The Trust welcomes private boats, charters, water taxis and even kayaks, but the scheduled ferry it points visitors to is Explore's.
One fare covers the boat out and back on the same day; Explore sells it online or on 0800 397 567, and the Trust quotes the same figures on its Day Trip page. Explore charges the adult price from a sixteenth birthday onwards, the child price below that down to age five, and nothing for toddlers. GST is not mentioned on either site.
Staying the night changes how you buy: return sailings for overnight guests are not sold online. Book the accommodation with the Trust first, then the ferry through Explore's reservations team, on 0800 397 567 according to Explore or on 09 359 5987 and [email protected] according to the Trust; guests get a 20% ferry discount code with their booking confirmation.
| Adult (16+), return | $ 110 |
| Child (5–15), return | $ 55 |
| Family pass, 2 adults and 2 children | $ 275 |
| Adult | $ 22 |
| Child | $ 11 |
| Family | $ 60 |
Fares published by Explore Group and the Rotoroa Island Trust, read 2 October 2026 Explore Group – Rotoroa Island ferry fares · 2026-10-02
From the Viaduct the boat leaves the Waitematā behind, slips past Rangitoto Island and keeps going east through the Gulf until Rotoroa comes up. Explore allows 75 minutes each way and calls the trip a scenic cruise in both directions. The same company sells combination days that pair Rotoroa with a wine tasting at Man O' War on Waiheke Island or with its Tīkapa Moana whale and dolphin cruise; those are packages, priced apart from the plain return.
The boat leaves from Explore's own booking kiosk at the Viaduct, not from the Downtown Ferry Terminal where the Auckland Transport ferries berth. Explore's directions put it where Quay Street runs out, facing the NZ Maritime Museum on the diagonal. The Trust asks you to use the shoe-cleaning station at the departure pier before boarding, and to tell the crew if you find anything living in your bag once you are on the water.
A ranger meets every ferry at the island wharf for a short welcome and a biosecurity check before you walk off. The wharf and its pontoon are closed to visiting boats except for brief drop-offs and pick-ups by people staying in the holiday homes; private skippers anchor off one of five bays and come ashore by dinghy. On the island, the museum, exhibition centre and heritage buildings open from 10am to 5pm daily except Christmas Day.
Check bags and camping equipment for rats, mice, Argentine ants or plague skinks, and for soil or seeds, and seal boxes completely: the Trust notes a mouse gets through a 7 mm gap. Brush your shoes at the cleaning station on the departure pier.
Dogs and other pets are banned outright, even below the high-water mark, to protect the takahē family and visiting kiwi. Bicycles, scooters and skateboards are not allowed either, and nor are drones, fires or camping.
Nothing to eat is sold on the island. A small kiosk opens 90 minutes before the return boat for ice creams, cold drinks and books, and there is a drinking fountain beside it.
There are no bins anywhere on Rotoroa: whatever you bring comes back on the ferry with you.
The Trust calls the terrain challenging for prams and suggests a front pack or back carrier for small children.
For close to a century almost nobody could take this trip. From 1911 to 2005 The Salvation Army ran Rotoroa as an addiction treatment centre, and the Trust counts about 12,000 people who passed through it. Public visits began in February 2011, under a 99-year lease that began in 2009, and has been free of predators since 2014; takahē, pāteke and tīeke now live there alongside the old buildings and an exhibition centre that tells that story.
If you know the Gulf from the Rākino ferry from Pier 6, Rotoroa works differently: a private excursion boat from another wharf at the Viaduct, booked ahead and priced for a day out, where Rākino's Belaire boat is an Auckland Transport service with dated sailings and fares paid on board. Both islands run the same pest checks.
Not until 24 October. Before that it sails Wednesday to Sunday and on public holidays; from 24 October it sails daily, with an extra 11:30 on weekends and public holidays.
09:15 from the Explore Booking Kiosk at Viaduct Harbour, all year. From 24 October there is also an 11:30 at the weekend and on public holidays.
Until 23 October the boat leaves the island at 14:25 and reaches the Viaduct at about 16:00. From 24 October you are back at 17:35, or at 16:35 on Fridays.
$110 return for an adult, $55 per child (Explore counts 5- to 15-year-olds as children), and $275 for a family ticket covering two adults plus two children. Children under 5 travel free.
The ferry pages list none. The $5 adult landing pass applies to visitors who arrive by private boat.
No. Pets are banned from the island, beaches included, and so are bicycles, scooters and skateboards.
Yes, in the Trust's holiday homes, which it says reopen in October 2026. Book the stay first, then your return sailings by phone or email with Explore, because overnight returns are not sold online.