Private Expedition Charters ยท Quoted for Your Trip
Sixteen metres, eight guests, two crew who know every rock. A private expedition vessel for fishing, diving, hunting and research, from Doubtful Sound to Dusky Sound and Preservation Inlet.
Whole-vessel charters only, quoted for your trip. We reply to every enquiry within 24 hours.
Photo: Derek Morrison
The Short Answer
MV Tutoko is a 16 metre expedition vessel for private charters in Fiordland, quoted for your trip. She carries up to eight guests and two crew, and is set up for dedicated fishing, multi-day diving, red deer and tahr hunting, and research work from Doubtful Sound to Dusky Sound and Preservation Inlet.
She is chartered privately, never shared, and every trip is quoted around your group and your goal. The scheduled overnight cruise runs on our flagship, MV Tutoko II.
A Charter, Day by Day
No two charters run the same route. This is the shape most of them take, photographed by Derek Morrison in Doubtful Sound in October 2026.
Day One, Morning
A charter starts at Pearl Harbour in Manapouri. You cross the lake, climb the Wilmot Pass by coach and come down to Deep Cove, where MV Tutoko is tied up and waiting, often beside her big sister MV Tutoko II. Gear goes aboard, the skipper runs through the plan for the days ahead, and the lines come off. The transfers are part of every charter, so there is nothing to arrange.
Day One, Afternoon
Doubtful Sound is forty kilometres of water with arms, islands and corners that take years to learn, and the crew choose each day from the weather rather than a timetable. Waterfalls come and go with the rain. The tender rides on the stern davit and the kayaks on the roof, and the wheelhouse already knows where the blue cod are holding this week.
Day Two
When the sea allows, MV Tutoko runs out past the Shelter Islands into the Tasman, to the hapuka and bluenose grounds, and on longer trips south to Dusky Sound and Preservation Inlet. Two crew who have worked this coast for decades read the swell and pick the day. You hold the rail and watch the fiord open up behind you.
Every Day
Everything happens off the back deck. The kayaks come down off the roof for a paddle up a quiet arm. The crayfish pot goes over the side. Divers gear up beside a full compressor, so a multi-day dive trip never has to come home for air. Rods are rigged and waiting, or bring your own. On a hunting charter, the tender drops you ashore at first light and the game handling and cold storage are ready when you come back.
Evening
The galley turns the day's catch into dinner: crayfish from the pot, blue cod from the morning, with wholesome meals and snacks around them. There is an espresso machine, a diesel stove that keeps the saloon warm in the cold months, and a long table where eight people compare the day. Meals and refreshments are in the price, not an extra.
Night
The skipper tucks her into a sheltered anchorage, the engine goes quiet and the fiord does the rest. Eight guests sleep in bunk cabins below, with two toilets and a shower on board, and the tender ferries anyone back from a late session on the water. In the morning the coffee is on, the plan changes with the forecast, and it all starts again somewhere new.
Life Aboard
She is a working expedition boat, not a floating hotel: warm, dry, well fed and set up so the gear is never in the way.
Espresso machine, diesel stove and the long table. Photo: Derek Morrison
Where the day gets compared and tomorrow gets planned. Photo: Derek Morrison
Decades of this coast at the wheel. Photo: Derek Morrison
Berths for eight below decks. Photo: Derek Morrison
Clean linen and a reading light after a long day. Photo: Derek Morrison
The forecast decides the day. Photo: Derek Morrison
Our crew have spent decades on these fiords. They know the tides, the holding spots, the dive sites that do not appear on any map, and the anchorages that shelter even in a southerly. That knowledge is yours for the length of the charter.
Dive compressor, fishing gear, kayaks, tender, game handling and cold storage. With eight guests there is room to move and work, and to come home with something worth talking about.
The Fiords From Above
MV Tutoko is the white dot by the headland. Forty kilometres of fiord, and most days you have it to yourselves. Photo: Derek Morrison
Snow on the tops, kayaks on the roof. Photo: Derek Morrison
Anchored at the entrance, tender alongside, during the tawaki nest survey. Photo: Derek Morrison
Vessel Details
| Role | Expedition vessel for private charters |
|---|---|
| Length | 16 metres |
| Guests | Up to 8, with a crew of 2 |
| Charter rate | Quoted per trip for the whole vessel. Off-peak rates are lower; ask |
| On board | Saloon with a long table and seating, galley with espresso machine and diesel stove, bunk cabins, two toilets, one shower |
| Equipment | Full dive compressor, fishing gear, kayaks, tender on a stern davit, crayfish pot, cold storage, game handling |
| Best for | Fishing charters, dive expeditions, hunting, research and documentary teams, small groups of friends or family |
| Range | Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound and Preservation Inlet |
| Departs | Pearl Harbour, Manapouri. Transfers to Deep Cove included |
| Booking | Private charter by enquiry only. Reply within 24 hours |
Built for the Mission
Blue cod, hapuka, bluenose, kingfish, trumpeter and more. Our crew know where the fish are, and the catch becomes dinner.
Black coral forests and some of the clearest water in New Zealand. A full dive compressor on board means multi-day dive charters without coming home for air.
Red deer and tahr from remote anchorages, with game handling and cold storage on board and crew who know where the animals run.
A stable platform for field teams: sheltered anchorages, dive support and crew used to working alongside scientists. See our tawaki survey work.
Eight is the number that makes a charter feel like a private expedition. Friends, family or a work crew, with room to move.
No standard route. You tell us what the trip is for, and we build the days around it.
The Charter
Every charter is priced for the trip you want, for the whole vessel and up to eight guests, and confirmed by email within 24 hours. There is no rate card and nothing is booked online. Outside the summer season we price charters to make a Kiwi weekend on the fiord possible, so ask before you assume.
The number of nights, how far into the fiords you go, the season and the size of your group. A long weekend in Doubtful Sound is a different trip from a week down the coast to Preservation Inlet, and a full boat shared between friends costs less per person than the same boat for two.
A long weekend: fishing and kayaking close to home, a crayfish dinner, a night at anchor each end of a full day on the water.
The run south along the coast when the weather window opens, with fishing, diving or hunting on the way and Dusky's islands to work from.
The far south-west corner of the country, for groups who want the full coast: hapuka grounds, remote anchorages and nobody else for days.
Who is in the group, when you want to go, how long for, where, and what the trip is for. We reply within 24 hours with an itinerary and a single price for the whole trip.
Research Charters
Every spring MV Tutoko carries the Tawaki Project's nest survey around Doubtful Sound: a crew that can land scientists on a rocky shore, hold a tender steady in a swell and keep a team warm and fed for a week. The same vessel and crew are available to research and documentary teams by charter.
Read about the tawaki surveyQuestions
The Fleet
MV Tutoko II and MV Tutoko side by side: what each vessel is built for and who it suits.
See both vessels
Whole-vessel charters for fishing, diving, hunting, research and groups, quoted for your trip.
Plan a charter
Trophy fishing, red deer and tahr, and dive expeditions with crew who know the back country.
For serious trips
The scheduled two-day, one-night cruise aboard our flagship, MV Tutoko II. Maximum twelve guests.
See the cruise
Photography by Derek Morrison, used with permission. Fiordland Expeditions. Since 2004. Two vessels, one family.