Record-breaking cruise season for Taranaki: 'This is the sort of thing people look for '

It used to be a running gag that if you saw a cruise ship in Taranaki it must have taken a wrong turn, but a record-breaking cruise season has seen more than 8000 passengers visit the province by sea.

Seven luxury liners will have berthed at Port Taranaki by next month and about twice that number are expected next summer, as a strategy to welcome 28 ships by 2028 takes shape.

But the ships are still enough of a novelty that hundreds of people head to the Lee Breakwater and Ngamotu Beach to watch them come into Port Taranaki.

Trish Dwyer and her mate Raewyn took out their stand-up paddle boards to meet the Seabourn Sojourn.

"It's just beautiful to be down here and paddling when they're right in front of you and great to know it's bringing all these people to see what we've got here in Taranaki.

"It's our parks, the mountain and all you want is for the mountain to be clear because it must be amazing when you're coming over the horizon to see the peak and it gets bigger and bigger."

Taranaki Maunga did not disappoint Irish passenger Linda Cozzo.

"This our sixth stop in New Zealand and it's beautiful absolutely beautiful and the mountain was absolutely beautiful.

"There was a white cloud over the top of it and I took some lovely photographs. Just lovely."

Linda and husband Giuseppe were at the pop-up Seaside Market, which coincided with each ship visit.

"This is the sort of thing people look for when they get off the ship. They look for local crafts and things.

"The big stores are the big stores and the same everywhere, but little stalls and things like this is definitely what cruisers look for for souvenirs to take home, and you always remember where you bought your little item."

'Lots of growth potential'

Venture Taranaki general manager destination Brylee Flutey expected the cruise industry to be injecting $10.5 million into the local economy by 2028.

"So it's quite significant for our economy.

"Currently the port only do about 1.0 percent of cruise vessels as part of their current programme of work and we contribute to the overall cruise industry nationwide in terms of port calls 0.2 percent.

"So, it's really small at the moment and there's lots of growth potential."

She said next season was set to be another record breaker.

"We've already got about 10 vessels on the books and that is generally representative of about 75 percent of final port calls.

"So, we'd expect maybe 12 or 13 ships in the end for next season which is actually tacking a head of our milestones in the Taranaki Cruise Strategy."

Port Taranaki general manager commercial Ross Dingle had the job of making this growth in cruise liner traffic work.

"We've got nine commercial working berths here at Port Taranaki and we keep them reasonably busy with our logs, our dry bulk and our liquids and offshore support.

"We sort of feel like we can manage 30 vessels a year and not put our other customers out too much, but once we start getting beyond that there's a lot more planning involved."

He had no qualms about the port's lack of a dedicated cruise terminal.

"The feedback from the passengers is that they are really intrigued when they come into a working port and they can see heavy equipment working and they can see people going about their business. That's something they're actually really interested in."

Arizona couple Anne and Matt Melsheimer had certainly got an insight into New Zealand exports on their travels.

"Lots of logs, lumber. Lots of lumber."

The last cruise ship due at Port Taranaki this season was the Hanseatic Spirit on 7 March.