Aussie invasion cruise style

A report in NZ The Dominion Post boatloads of Aussies are headed this way, with the maiden voyage of the Sun Princess to Wellington part of a burgeoning trans-Tasman cruise trade.

The 261-metre cruise ship is one of two that cruise company Carnival Australia has relocated from the northern hemisphere to cope with Australia’s fastest growing holiday market.

Carnival corporate affairs director Sandy Olsen said Australian demand for cruise ship holidays was growing 18 per cent a year.

The massive Sun Princess and sister ship the Dawn Princess would make 22 trips to New Zealand in the next two years.

The ship docked at 6am yesterday with 1,800 Australians on board, from a total passenger list of 2058.  Most went on tours around the capital and the region before leaving for Napier at 8pm.

Faced with a commercial dock next to the railyards and log stockpiles, they had an ugly walk to get downtown from Aotea Quay.

But Sun Princess captain Peter Russell said most countries were struggling to match the growing cruise industry with appropriate facilities.

“The world is slowly catching up to the growth of cruise ships; most ports in the UK cannot handle cruise ships,” he said.

Visiting six ports in the 14-day New Zealand tour out of Sydney or Melbourne, the Princess ships are just two of 38 ships booked to visit this season.

Centreport cruise manager Karen Funnell said ships used to reserve wharf space up to a year ahead, but 40 bookings had already been made for the 2010 season.

“It’s a massive increase.”

In 1997 only nine ships visited Wellington, and in recent years between 20 and 26 ships was the normal count. Bookings for the 2008-09 season had already doubled that, with 52 ships expected so far, she said.

The typical three-month cruising season had tripled to nine months and the ships were getting larger. Aotea Quay was the only berth big enough in Wellington.

Only six of this season’s ships were under 180 metres long and could berth at Queens Wharf.

Captain Russell said the growth in cruise popularity was largely to do with affordability. A 14-day New Zealand cruise on the Sun Princess cost about $3000, including meals.

“If you cost it compared to a holiday in a hotel, eating out at night, travel and so on, it is very cheap.”

Cruise New Zealand estimated cruise ship expenditure last season was worth about $236 million, of which $72.5 million went to Auckland. Wellington got $4.9 million from the season.

Positively Wellington Tourism chief executive Tim Cossar said the cruise industry was a small but growing market that was benefiting retailers, especially when bigger ships arrived.

A report by The Mole from The Dominion Post