John Darkin: Stand aside Captain Cook, make room for The World

Opinion

Jack Canfield, creator of the Chicken Soup series of self-help books, describes in his new book The Success Principles how to get from where you are to where you want to be. It is a lesson that, with the possible exception of the Black Caps, many New Zealanders are learning fast.

New Zealand, so long in the shadow of Australia, is slowly establishing successes, large and small, of which it can be proud.

We have had individual triumphs, such as that of Keisha Castle-Hughes, a new kid on the block who went to Hollywood and nearly beat them at their own game. Someone who did was Peter Jackson, who cleaned out the Oscar cupboard and did more than anyone to promote New Zealand's pristine image.

From the past, the Hillary legend lives on. Hardly a year passes without international acknowledgment of this great adventurer and humanitarian being marked.

In commerce who can deny the brilliant achievements of Pumpkin Patch? Founded in 1990 by Sally Pynott, 15 years on this business is worth $500 million and rising.

Even the Queen acknowledges our viticulture industry. New Zealand fine wines can be found on her table in the state dining room at Buckingham Palace. What better approval than for a royal palate to be gargling Cloudy Bay sauvignon and Mount Edward pinot noir?

All these people took their chances and succeeded. And there will be a further example next year when, after a series of negotiations, the world's most exclusive ocean cruise liner, The World, arrives here.

At 43,000 tonnes and 644ft (196m) in length, The World is the first residential cruise ship - a floating condominium in which apartments cost millions of dollars to buy but can be rented from the owners for about $5000 a night. That is the cost of flying around the real world twice. A snip.

The vessel will head for the fiords in the South Island and for Gisborne, where it will tie up on Labour Weekend, allowing up to 900 of the world's wealthiest people to poke around the town.

Gisborne hopes to be New Zealand's next big success story. Profits from cruise-ship visits are part of its plan to get the town from where it is to where it wants to be.

But consider for a moment the passengers aboard The World. They are successful people who have already travelled Canfield's journey. For them, arrival in Gisborne will surely come as a welcome relief after hardships of life on a floating condo.

Cramped in their luxury apartments, some of which are only 360sq m, with private veranda and jet pool and state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment, they will struggle to stave off boredom between ports.

Image the deprivation. The ship has only four restaurants, a library, a health spa, a bridge club, a casino, a cinema, two swimming pools (one indoor), hairdressers, very posh jewellers, fashion stores, delis selling caviar, a full-sized tennis court and a golf driving range. Shuffling down the gangplank in Gisborne will feel like being released from prison.

The town will turn out in force to greet this monster of a ship and its oozing opulence. It could be the most significant arrival in Gisborne since Captain Cook. As Maori once looked on in wonder at the Endeavour and her strange passengers and crew, so might today's residents experience the contrast between their own small provincial world and the other half from across the oceans.

We might be the world's greatest travellers, but not many of us travel like this. Apart from paying millions for an apartment, prospective buyers must show they have more millions in reserve and no criminal record.

Gisborne's city fathers and the cruise ship organisers hope this trip will herald a new chapter in the town's history, and provide a much-needed boost to the local economy. More ship visits are planned, but none as grand as The World.

Its arrival will coincide with the annual Gisborne Wine and Food Festival, and local tourism managers anticipate that many of the ship's 900 passengers will want to visit the out-of-town wineries. That Gisborne has fewer taxi and bus seats than the number of bottoms requiring them leaves the promoters undaunted.

A visit to Gisborne by the Prime Minister, accompanied by a Cabinet minister and two MPs, has brought hope of a solution to this dilemma. Shown a disused railway track that meanders around the harbour, Helen Clark enthusiastically supported the idea of having the line fixed so the visitors could be whisked to the wine country by elderly locomotive. She promised to speak to the Tourism Minister about the paltry $50,000 needed to put the track in order.

Securing a visit by The World will test Gisborne's business acumen. Although used to receiving large numbers of tourists during summer, it is not accustomed to them arriving simultaneously, and especially not gangs of the super-rich.

But if Gisborne gets it right, it will be another success to build on. The question is: how much experience do we have in dealing with people who wear diamonds on the soles of their shoes?

* John Darkin is a Gisborne writer.