Ports of Auckland has notched up its best two months and an analyst says it has seized container volume share back from Port of Tauranga.

Len Brown wants his council to look more to public private partnership models to create new infrastructure, saying it could relieve the financial burden on ratepayers and taxpayers.

Ports of Auckland has hired top lawyer Mai Chen to help it in a row with the Auckland Council over measures to reclaim more of the Waitemata Harbour.

'This is bloody ridiculous," says Captain John Barker as he peers westward. I can see his point.

Dionne Christian checks out activities on offer during Auckland's Heritage Festival.

Waterfront Auckland has already prepared for an New Zealand America's Cup win, having earmarked land on six separate sites for possible syndicate bases.

Ports of Auckland will ask ships to slow down in and out of the harbour to save endangered whales in the Hauraki Gulf.

Key issues on the future of Auckland, including Ports of Auckland expansion plans and apartments in the suburbs.

Port bosses express confidence mayoral investigation will vindicate their blueprint for further development.

Like a disc stuck on replay, Auckland's port company is at it again, seeking to advance its plan to reclaim more of the Waitemata Harbour for its operations.

The proposal to block the glorious views from Queens Wharf to the North Shore cones and the inner gulf islands is not a positive vision, writes Brian Rudman.

While Aucklanders debate the future of the city's port, work in progress in Wellington may decide its fate. Ministry of Transport officials are working on a National Freight Demand Study.

Plans to intensify transport corridors and develop the harbour edge are on a collision course with expansion and container growth at the Ports of Auckland.

Cruise ship visits to New Zealand are set to ease from the latest bumper season, but that has not diminished hope of seeing more tourism dollars.

Auckland hapu and waterfront landowner Ngati Whatua o Orakei says there is no rush to formalise expansion plans for Ports of Auckland.

The latest plans to expand Waitemata Harbour for port business are set to be decided by Auckland councillors next week.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown has the numbers to push ahead with filling in more Waitemata Harbour, a senior council source says.

Auckland councillors are being urged to effectively dump a review of port development options in favour of fast-tracking the latest expansion plans into law.

Leading Auckland business figures are squaring off ahead of a crucial vote today on reclaiming more of the Waitemata Harbour for port operations.

With more than 1.1 million passenger days spent in New Zealand, the country's ports have survived the biggest cruise season on record - but only just.

Ports of Auckland is making a fresh bid to extend the city's port into the Waitemata Harbour after a public backlash last year sunk plans to expand 283m into the harbour.

Auckland's Queens Wharf is too small for the new generation of bigger cruise ships and may need a $10 million top-up from ratepayers.

The 2008 world champion Terenzo Bozzone will race in next month's inaugural Ironman 70.3 Auckland triathlon.

Ports of Auckland has been ordered to pay $40,000 for deliberately breaking the law by employing contractors during industrial action at the port.