Specialising in wildlife cruises, cycle & passenger ferry & family experiences on the Otago Harbour.
05/02/2025
20 years ago I signed my first contract as a crew member onboard a large tourist launch.
I'd come from an unsettled personal history and this was the thing to settle me down and forced me to start growing up.
1.5 years later I was skippering the vessel.
I always felt that my employers took a big punt on me and remain grateful for that first opportunity.
We used to carry up to 75 passengers at a time.
It's was a pretty big deal for me back then, at 23 years of age.
It took many years for me to feel like I was really up to the job, as there was so much to learn and so much responsibility.
Fast forward to present moment and I'm so happy to still be on the harbour and to still be working with passengers and the public. Though on my own boat 'Sootychaser'.
A former crew member I worked with in the early days, Suzanne came by this past week to check in and catch up .
(She also now runs her own tourism company in Ireland)
She is pictured on the right in the second photo.
(The other lady in the photo , on the left I still see once a year at a Christmas party. She crewed onboard the boat into her 70s and previously had featured in a David Attenborough documentary about the albatross.)
I'm lucky to still have those early connections, along with many others.
And I'm always grateful to the countless people who have helped me along the way.
I do often look back to remember and figure how this all happened!
🤗🙏🥰
Rachel
