Perfect day for the first cruise ship of summer

The perfect welcome mat was laid out this morning to usher in the Gisborne cruise ship season. The Golden Princess went to anchor for the day out in the Bay at about 7.30am, in idyllic conditions, and the first passengers were tendered ashore at about 8.30am. Jeff and Leanne Morris, from Euston in New South Wales, were among the first up the new gangway at Pier Three in the inner harbour. Pictures by Liam Clayton

A perfect Poverty Bay morning greeted the first cruise ship visit of the season today when regular caller Golden Princess nosed into the bay and dropped anchor for the day.

The first passengers were tendered ashore just after 8.30am in ideal conditions and they were the first visitors to use the new passenger berthing area known as Pier Three.

Pier Three’s gangways, ramps and modern moorings are in front of Crawford Road Kitchen.

“The infrastructure allows two tenders to disembark passengers at the same time, designed to speed things up for the passengers who came ashore for the day,” said Eastland Port general manager Andrew Gaddum.

“Other shoreside improvements have been made to accommodate wheelchairs and streamline the safe transfer of passengers, once on land.

“With Pier Three in operation, we’ve been able to modernise our guests’ arrival experience, “ he said.

The Golden Princess will call here eight more times this season, with a total 19 cruise ships by the end of March.

The flow of logs through Eastland Port dropped below 200,000 tonnes last month, with bad weather and high seas a factor again.Last month 197,900 tonnes of wood was loaded on to eight log ships.

“Two separate weather events stopped shipping for six-and-a-half days during the month and this, combined with better weather for log harvesting, meant the port hovered at its log storage capacity in October,” Mr Gaddum said.

“We’re starting to get on top of things now and the line-up of ships expected for November will see the stock starting to flow off the port.”