Pure Cruise New Zealand - A Unique Story

A luxury catamaran from the Caribbean has found a new home in Rotorua, offering visitors, businesses and locals alike a unique eco sailing experience on beautiful Lake Rotoiti, in the Rotorua Lakes area of New Zealand.

Tiua is a 53 foot luxury catamaran owned by Pure Cruise Ltd, a new tourism business committed to delivering an exceptional leisure or corporate experience that makes the very most of Lake Rotoiti’s unique features.

Pure Cruise director, Tina Masters, says Lake Rotoiti is the perfect location for a unique yacht like Tiua.

“Lake Rotoiti is located just a short drive from Rotorua, but once you’re out there, it feels like a whole world away."

“The lake has some of the most stunning scenery in New Zealand, and most of it is only accessible from the water,” says Tina.

“There are natural hot pools, which are perfect for a leisurely soak, and also some important cultural and historical landmarks."

Your Pure Cruise experience includes trout fishing - and right now Lake Rotoiti is producing both brown and rainbow trophy trout - a soak in natural mineral hot pools, sailing Tiua or enjoying fine cuisine, premium NZ beverages and reclining aboard watching the scenery slip by, it’s simply stunning.

Tiua has been designed for entertaining, making it a stylish and unique floating venue for any event, from the very small to the large, including private functions, meetings or team building events.

Matt Horder has spent his sailing career skippering private yachts around the world, and has now brought his passion and experience to Tiua on Lake Rotoiti.

Matt cut his sailing teeth doing yacht deliveries throughout the Mediterranean before heading to Antigua in the Caribbean to begin working on Super Yachts. His sailing career includes 3 Atlantic crossings and 2 Pacific Ocean transits and his partner Annie joined him as crew on several of these voyages and Caribbean cruises.

Matt is passionate about Lake Rotoiti having lived by the lake for 10 years, now with his partner Annie and son Joshi, and is an exceptional sailor who is keen to share these interests with guests on board Tiua.

He knows all the best spots around the lake for fishing and swimming, and he is even happy to hand over the wheel to guests – after they’ve had a quick lesson of course!

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else right now. We have the perfect yacht in the perfect location. There is nowhere else in the world I would rather be.”

When business partners Tina Masters, Don Johnstone, Annie Walden and Matt Horder decided to set up Pure Cruise, they began a worldwide search for the right vessel that would suit the unique surroundings of Lake Rotoiti.

That search came to an end in Grenada in the Caribbean, when they found a 53 foot catamaran that was the perfect yacht for the job.

Matt and Tina, accompanied by a couple of friends Tim and Bernd sailed the yacht halfway around the world to bring it to New Zealand, on a trip that included sailing down the world-famous Panama Canal, visiting the Galapagos Islands and meeting "Lonesome George," a giant Galapagos tortoise and conservation icon long thought to be the sole survivor of his species from the Island of Pinta in the Northern Galapagos.

Then catching the trade winds south to French Polynesia and the Marquesas Islands. The Marquesas Islands are the island group farthest from any continent in the world, lying between 900 and 1,200 km south of the Equator and 1,371 km northeast of Tahiti. Famous French painter Paul Gaugain spent the last years of his life on the Marquesas. From here the downhill run to Papeete, Rarotonga, Tonga a night or two in Minerva Reef, a reef system in the Pacific ocean, 1200 km North of New Zealand.

Four months and 9000 nautical miles later, the 53 foot Tiua arrived at her new home in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.

Already a beautiful catamaran, Tiua has been transformed into the luxurious yacht she is today.

Tina and Matt have kept her beautiful natural wood timbers, and kept the decorating classic and simple. Now, she includes a saloon, lounge, fully licensed bar and three guest bathrooms.

Tiua is available for a tailored cruising experience, and meetings and functions of nearly every kind, catering for up to 50 guests.

To book your space on board Tiua, contact Pure Cruise now on info@purecruise.co.nz, or call 0800 2 SAIL NZ (0800 272 456) or visit the Pure Cruise website at www.purecruise.co.nz.