Watch National Geographic Orion's New Zealand Christening (VIDEO)

Lindblad Expeditions has released a video of the recent christening ceremony of the National Geographic Orion. The ceremony included paining National Geographic on the side of the ship and speeches by Jeremy Lindblad and ship godmother Valerie Taylor

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"It's an incredibly exciting day for all of us at Lindblad, and I'm so excited that we got to enjoy this with the wonderful folks aboard and Valerie Taylor," said Jeremy Lindblad, director of business development, Australia, for Lindblad Expeditions. "A lot of work went in to this. A lot of folks behind the scenes made this happen."

Following the ceremony the ship embarked on her maiden voyage to the South Pacific, exploring New Zealand's North Island and the Solomon Sea. Valerie Taylor was on the maiden voyage as a Global Perspectives guest speaker. 

The newly renamed ship comes with a full roster of exploration tools, including kayaks, a state of the art remote operated vehicle (ROV) that reaches depths of up to nearly 1,000 feet, full snorkelling gear for all, a SCUBA program that can accommodate up to 24 divers at a time with a dive master, a glass bottom boat, additional Zodiacs and other tools. The expanded expedition team now has a National Geographic photographer, a Lindblad-National Geographic certified photo instructor, and a video chronicler on all departures; and undersea specialist/dive master on many voyages; plus Global Perspectives guest speakers on select voyages. 

Visit www.expeditions.com