Bay set to boom with $10m injection

The country's biggest passenger transport company is pumping up to $10 million into the Bay of Islands in its first-ever foray into marine tourism.
InterCity has bought Kings Dolphin Cruises and Tours and has big plans for the Paihia-based operation.
If all goes to plan, the buy-out will bring a huge boost to tourism and employment in the Bay.
InterCity chief executive Malcolm Johns said the company would be investing millions in new boats, coaches and cruise packages over the next three years. The expansion would be carefully planned and details would only be made public once the dust had settled from the take-over, he said.
"The worst thing we could do would be to rush in and make decisions about issues affecting the people of the Bay of Islands."
InterCity Group is New Zealand's largest national tourism and transport provider through its InterCity and Newmans services, which carry 1.2m passengers a year. Of those, 350,000 are overseas visitors.
Despite the softly-softly approach to expansion, the new owners started a new Auckland-Paihia-Auckland day tour on Sunday, the same day the sale was confirmed.
Mr Johns said InterCity had had plenty of time to plan its debut offer blending the resources of both operations, because the company had been discussing the sale with Kings owners Gary and Rio Crapper for over two years.
InterCity had advised its overseas booking agents about the day tour several months ago.
InterCity already runs four bus services a day from Auckland to Kaitaia via Paihia. The new round trip from Auckland for a day on the Bay boosts capacity to 600 a day. Mr Johns said buying Kings was part of an expansion strategy focused on "real experiences as opposed to manufactured ones like, say, water-slides".
Kings was a "natural fit" providing the sort of experiences InterCity wanted to get into, like dolphin-watching and swimming. As well, the scenery and sea-life were "magical".
The Crappers are contracted to continue managing the company for at least two years.
They bought the business 12 years ago as a small operation employing four with one boat and one coach.
They now employ up to 30, and operate three catamarans and four coaches. The two larger vessels are used for daily excursions to Cape Brett, one offering dolphin-watching and the other swimming with dolphins. The third is a fast service between Paihia, Russell and Waitangi.
Gary Crapper said yesterday that he and Rio had taken the company as far as they could.
"We obviously want to help grow the business but we are very pleased that InterCity has come in with the resources to take the operation to the next level. It will be good for the Bay," he said.
InterCity Group was created from the former State-owned nationwide bus services which were privatised in the early 1990s, and is owned by four families.