Theatre of the water with 360-degree views

The bottom of Queen St to Queen's Wharf, viewed from the top of the Mercure Hotel. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The further you walk on Queens Wharf, the better it gets.

The Herald and other media got a rare glimpse behind the red fence midweek when Auckland City Council's John Duthie pushed his case for retaining the sheds. We came away with an appreciation of why the stakes are so high.

As you walk through the first of the two cargo sheds - a two-storey building on the eastern side - sea views to the east come and go through a series of side doors.

The harbour vista gradually expands to a panorama taking in North Head, Rangitoto, Browns Island and down the Motuihe Channel to Waiheke.

From the end of the wharf, the view back to the city is striking in another way, the office towers form a backdrop to the basin on either side of the wharf.

This is where city development manager Duthie's vision of "the theatre of the water" springs to life. He sees the wharf as a 360-degree viewing platform for harbour activities, with tug boats, pilot boats and ferries coming and going and, yes, cruise ships.

The thing about cruise ships is they are so big. While they are tied up, the magic views to the east will be hidden - for perhaps 100 days if future projections are correct - at the sunniest time of year, from December to March.

Customs requirements will bring access as well as visual restrictions - as happens now when cruise boats tie up at Princes Wharf and mesh fences go up. But Duthie and Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee don't see cruise ships as a negative.

Suggestions that a cruise ship terminal is incompatible with public access are "complete rubbish," says Lee. "There's nearly 3ha of wharf there. A cruise ship terminal is not going to take up that much room. The problem is batting away people who want to clutter up the wharf [with other facilities], including Auckland City.

"There will be ample public space with a cruise ship terminal including markets," he pledges. "The footprint needed for the terminal would be slightly bigger than for the cargo shed." ARC concept plans are for a 6000 sq m to 8000 sq m terminal.

Duthie says the eastern shed could be renovated as a multi-purpose building for the Rugby World Cup, its upper level used for cruise ship access. After the Cup, the facility would be open for public uses. He envisages the walls reclad in glass to capture the views.

Midweek, he wanted to show the media the heritage features which could be retained on the upper floor. These include a kauri sarking ceiling, steel trusses and matai flooring.

But, unlike Lee, who took the Herald upstairs last weekend to showcase the shed's dilapidated state, Duthie and the dozen-or-so media contingent were denied access by the port company "on health and safety grounds".

The single storey western shed, now a coolstore, could be re-roofed and developed, initially with big screens for rugby watchers, for $3.5 million. Afterwards it could be used for public events or theatre.

Cracks in the wharf surface appear far from superficial. Duthie points out height variations of nearly a metre in places which could create injury risks if not fixed.

A look underneath reveals the 1912 structure has a reassuring amount of concrete pillars and beams propping it up, if coated in barnacles. But the extent of seismic upgrade needed remains to be seen.

Our visit allowed a view of the working port from Bledisloe to the Fergusson container terminal. What was unmissable was the amount of spare capacity the port has to consolidate its operations. But the port company plans to reclaim yet more of the harbour to become a container shipping hub port with a vast footprint.

There has to be scope to reconfigure so Bledisloe could accommodate cruise ships without compromising the container hub operations. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for instance is an example of a dual-purpose cargo and cruise ship terminal - and it handles a lot more cruise visits than Auckland ever will.

It's nothing flash - a feature of cruise ship terminals worldwide. There's industry support for better terminal facilities in Auckland than Princes Wharf and the current overflow option of Queens Wharf - which sees Customs set up shop in the eastern shed, converted for visitors using screens.

But it's worth remembering that for a high proportion of cruise passengers who arrive in the morning, the priority is to get on a waiting bus and head for Rotorua, Waitomo Caves or the Bay of Islands and be back in time for the ship's departure that night.

A facility as large as Banks has in mind - a combined terminal and convention centre - may be years away but it would "bookend" the city basin from Princes Wharf to Bledisloe and mask the backdrop of container stacks and cranes.

But to suggest to Lee that Bledisloe is a better site is to invite ridicule. Bledisloe is currently not needed for container ships due to the downturn in trade but the port intends to redevelop the wharves from Bledisloe to the Fergusson container terminal for increasingly large container ships.

Lee is adamant that Queens Wharf should become the terminal site, without compromising public access and enjoyment of the views.

"Queens Wharf is not only the best place for Auckland, it's the only place. We wouldn't have [gone ahead] if we couldn't have a cruise ship terminal there. Where else would you put it - in the middle of a container terminal?

"That's barmy. Some people won't be happy until the port is somewhere off Mission Bay."