Pacific Sun Uses Queens Wharf

There I was on Monday morning, 14th June, minding my own business commuting to work at the ARC by ferry from Devonport. And I said, "ullo, ullo, ullo?" There was the Pacific Sun tied up at Queens Wharf, and Princes Wharf was empty. So I went to have a look from the ferry terminal. The place was teeming with people and security guards. Could I get onto Queens Wharf?...

I couldn't quite tell what was happening from the Red Gates. Were people coming or going? What was going on? I tried to look like a tourist as I pushed my bike onto the wharf. The guards ignored me...

As I got closer I could see that whole families appeared to be getting off the Pacific Sun, piling into taxis and cars and all sorts, and heading home. Bags and all.

At one point there must've been half a dozen big buses taking up a whole lot of space, coming and going...

And there were private cars for Africa. People piling in with their bags and being sheparded out onto a busy Quay Street by those Security Guards...

At the other end of the ship containers were being loaded and unloaded, trucks were coming and going, and barriers were in place to prevent nosy members of the public from getting too close.

So I asked a Security Guard what was happening and it all became clear. This particular trip for the Pacific Sun was from the Islands somewhere, and it was terminating in Auckland. All the passengers were disembarking he explained, and another trip would be departing later that day, after the new lot of passengers were allowed on board. The point of this blog is to illustrate the intensity of use of Queens Wharf, and the major traffic effects, when a cruise ship uses the wharf to terminate and originate a cruise. Most cruise ship visits to Auckland are so-called "Port of Call" visits. The ship simply calls in, the passengers live on board the ship with all their baggage, and they visit Auckland as tourists while the ship is in port. The demands on the cruise ship terminal are much less for "Port of Call" visits than "Originating" or "Terminating" visits. So are the traffic demands. The Pacific Sun is a medium sized cruise ship, holding a maximum of 1900 passengers. That's quite a few. Other cruise ships that visit Auckland are bigger - with presumably greater traffic and freight demands - should they dock here to terminate or to originate a cruise. The question of whether Queens Wharf should be used for a cruise ship terminal is critically affected by the further question of what the terminal is for: port of call only? Or to originate and terminate cruises? And there is the additional question of whether it should be Queens Wharf (or Princes Wharf or another wharf) that functions as Auckland's primary cruise ship terminal. These questions and options have not been properly canvassed with Aucklanders. It is disingenuous to describe Queens Wharf as "the Peoples Wharf", when it is obvious how damaging to public amenity a "world class" cruise ship terminal designed to service terminating and originating cruises will be.