KEY POINTS:
Visitors to the Rainbow Warrior sometimes ask if its hull has been patched up or if it was the vessel that sank a French warship.
So when the crew of the 55m former fishing trawler open the gangplank to the public in Auckland next weekend they reckon they will be prepared for most questions.
The Greenpeace protest ship, since 1989 the namesake of the Rainbow Warrior bombed at the Port of Auckland by French agents in 1985, is in the city after campaigning in the Asia-Pacific region to draw attention to climate change issues.
It will be open to visitors on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm at Princes Wharf.
Of interest to some will be the wheelhouse bell, which came from the old Rainbow Warrior. Captain Derek Nichol said it was the only item on board from the 45m ship that was subsequently gutted and sunk as an artificial reef in Matauri Bay, Northland.
He said people all over NZ had bits of the bombed Rainbow Warrior, even bolts.
Captain Nichol said Greenpeace offered the public a chance to view the new ship whenever possible. He said it was popular "in every port of New Zealand".
But Captain Nichol said he still had people asking if it was the ship that sank a French warship.
Greenpeace campaign director Carmen Gravatt said she had heard others ask whether the Rainbow Warrior had just had its hull patched up, although most of the confusion was from foreign visitors.
The vessel's visit to Auckland marks the start of a six-week climate change tour. Its last visit, in 2005, marked the 20th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing.
This week, Greenpeace will host groups such as school students and politicians.
The Rainbow Warrior will also be open to the public when it visits Gisborne on March 13.
Ms Gravatt said the ship had just come from Indonesia, where last November it tried to block a tanker carrying more than 30,000 tonnes of palm oil from leaving a port, to protest against forests being destroyed to make way for plantations.
The protest action was held ahead of the UN climate change meeting in Bali, where delegates from 189 countries debated ways to slow down global warming, including the impact of dwindling tropical rainforests.
The Rainbow Warrior has previously sailed to Mururoa in 1992, to protest against nuclear testing, and in 1989 sailed the Tasman Sea to document driftnetting.
