Only peaks can dwarf massive cruise ship

Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas in Milford Sound yesterday. Photo / Courtesy of Otago Daily Times

It's the biggest cruise ship to visit and likely the most valuable machine to call at New Zealand.

With a build cost of $1.44 billion, the Ovation of the Seas has a bigger construction bill than Auckland's Waterview tunnel and motorway interchange project but was dwarfed by Milford Sound's peaks yesterday.

It's 20m longer than the height of the Sky Tower, but it's not too big to beat the weather. A port call at Dunedin set for today was canned because of forecast storms, so it will instead cruise up the west coast of the South Island to Wellington, where it is due to arrive first thing tomorrow.

It heads for Picton on Christmas Eve and spends Christmas Day at sea en route to Tauranga, where its 168,666 gross tonnes will arrive on Boxing Day.

The next day the Ovation is due in Auckland - where it is too large to berth at cruise-ship wharves - and the following day it will be at the Bay of Islands before heading back to Sydney.

The vessel is the fourth biggest cruise ship in the world. Its features include a stand-up surfing pool, sky-diving simulator, rock-climbing wall, dodgem cars, a circus school and an observation gondola on a hydraulic arm rising 90m above the ship.

It has eight speciality restaurants and some bars are set up with robotic bar tenders, which help to deliver 127 different cocktails.
Owner Royal Caribbean says it is part of a new generation of ships which offer "super cruising" for increasingly discerning passengers.
Last season the cruise industry was worth close to half a billion dollars to New Zealand.