Cruise ships return to New Zealand waters this summer - Ports of Auckland expecting daily arrivals

Nine hundred cruise ship visits are expected in New Zealand this season (October 2022 to April 2023), including the Majestic Princess, which was berthed at Princes Wharf in downtown Auckland on December 30. Photo / Dean Purcell

Cruise ships will again be a common sight in New Zealand waters this summer, with more than 50 to dock at downtown Auckland wharves before March, including three on February 1.

Aucklanders can expect to see a ship, sometimes two, in port almost every day for the rest of summer, according to Ports of Auckland’s 2022/23 cruise schedule.

A further 15 ships are expected in March and April before the season slows to a handful of visits each month through the rest of the year.

It includes the maiden voyage to New Zealand of a vessel hailed as one of the world’s most luxurious liners ever built, the Seven Seas Explorer, with walls decorated in art by Picasso and Chagall and boasting an acre of marble and deluxe fittings and finishes.

New Zealand was closed to cruise ships for more than two years, along with entry for non-citizen or resident air travellers, as the country battled first to keep Covid-19 out, and later to limit its spread.

The country’s maritime border reopened to all vessels on July 31.

Cruise ship the Majestic Princess berthed at Princes Wharf on a busy day in downtown Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell

Nine hundred port calls were expected nationally during the summer cruise season, which runs from October to April, New Zealand Cruise Association chief executive Kevin O’Sullivan said in August.

That number would put port calls near pre-pandemic numbers, which generated almost $570 million in the year to June 2019, according to Statistics NZ.

Among those back in Aotearoa was P&O Australia’s Majestic Princess, which can carry 3560 passengers and spent the day in Auckland before sailing for the Bay of Islands last night.

Norwegian Cruise Line also returned to our waters for the first time since the pandemic, with Norwegian Spirit - fresh from a US $100m bow-to-stern “revitalisation” - sailing into Dunedin on its maiden New Zealand voyage on Thursday.