From March next year, a rich bounty of visitors to Auckland from the world’s largest cruise ships will get a welcome befitting a global-class city when the port opens a purpose-built new international cruise precinct.
Part of Port of Auckland’s mission to stamp the city large on the global ship call map, the large terminal precinct is one piece of a $200 million “big ships” development project that will also see it able to receive cargo vessels carrying 10,000 containers by the end of next year.
The project includes the new Bledisloe North wharf, enabling cruise ships carrying 4500-plus passengers to tie up at the visitor precinct, development of the Fergusson North wharf to handle bigger container vessels and associated dredging works.
Port of Auckland chief executive Roger Gray says Auckland currently welcomes more than 300,000 cruise passengers a year who bring $600m of value to the city’s economy.
While 4500-passenger ships have called at Auckland, they’ve been reluctant visitors.
Lack of dedicated facilities and berthing space has provided “a terrible customer experience”, Gray says, with cruise tourists having to be shuttled around, delayed offshore, or berthed at the Fergusson container terminal.
The new precinct will allow visitors to walk directly into the CBD. Auckland is one of a only handful of global ports that offer this opportunity. The facility will be able to process up to 1500 passengers an hour.
The potential is for Auckland to double its cruise ship calls to 160 a year with the summer cruise season and the return, from next year, of winter cruising, Gray says.
“Now we’re looking to see real growth in those big 4500 ships, so I would think we have a real potential to bring in 100,000 more passengers as we continue to invest and re-attract people.”
With the new Bledisloe North wharf able to take very large cruise ships, the port can start its operational exit from the ferry basin, “which is great for the city”, he says.
“It will allow us to discharge or load a big cruise ship within three hours.
Gray says the cruise industry is hugely important to the city’s economy - and this is “key to unlocking the central wharves development and the work Auckland Council and Auckland Unlimited want to do on continuing to revitalise the waterfront”.
Preparing Auckland as a major shipping gateway for the next 40 years and to get seen as a “global city” also requires the region’s freight, retail and business communities to step up, says Gray.
If the port is a lens for Auckland’s global growth ambitions, then cargo receipt and distribution needs to become a 24/7 operation, Gray says.
Auckland’s population will grow in the next 40 years, along with consumption, so the country’s main import gateway has a critical role in ensuring the city - and the New Zealand supply chain - is ready.
“We see our role as being here for the city, growing with the city and how we grow together. That’s about getting trucks off the road for rail and getting them out of peak traffic hours, working at night and through the weekends.
“That’s the 24/7 focus we’re still keen to see others adopt.”
Gray’s calling for a “serious conversation” on the 24/7 operational aim with industry groups. He says the port’s owner, Auckland Council, and transport agencies such as NZTA are supportive of the call but there needs to be a holistic mindset change within the city.
“With New Zealand industry and businesses ... it’s about major cargo receivers not being open in the afternoon on a Friday, or on Saturday or Sunday, not having night shifts, these sorts of things.”
Cargo receivers include the food manufacturing and retail sectors, large-scale importers and freight forwarders.
“As the city grows so will the demand on cargo receivers to start receiving so we’re engaging directly with all of them.”
“We acknowledge it’s not easy and it does add cost in the short run. But in operational performance, the speed of getting cargo moving will outweigh other costs in the long term.
“So that’s a discussion we’re starting to have with industry, with the Food and Grocery Council, to talk to food manufacturers, food sellers, supermarkets. We also need the support of council to make sure they don’t impose noise limitations in and around delivery points.”
The discussions with the supply chain about a 24/7 operation economy are starting to pay dividends.
Gray says there’s been an increase in the amount of cargo travelling by rail, with around 20% of customers now using rail to import and export their goods.
Since the port has increased its peak and excess charges, transport companies had started to shift cargo after 6pm and on weekends.
Asked to name the worse constraints on cargo movement, Gray responds: “Sit on the southern motorway, sit on the northern motorway, sit on the northwestern motorway at Monday to Friday peaks and you’ll be able to answer that question.
“Our road network needs to have the load shifted to the back of the clock in order to start to see a better flow and a reduction in congestion.”
With growth in Auckland’s population will come growth in cargo and that means growth in ship calls and vessel sizes, Gray says.
“That’s why we’re building the Fergusson North wharf (container terminal wharf) and doing the dredging to be 10,000 TEU (20ft equivalent container) capable going forward in our role as one of, in my view, the three blue water ports in New Zealand into the future.”
As to what regulatory or policy shifts Gray thinks are needed to achieve 24/7 freight logistics, he says the most important influence will be congestion charging legislation currently going through Parliament.
“That will allow the council to start to implement time-of-use charging and making that dynamic influence traffic flows. It will be another prompt to look at opportunities to go (travel) outside those periods of charging but secondly, will assist in probably reducing demand on already restrictive infrastructure roads.
“It’ll enable the council to get cracking and will be the great unlock to the regulatory change that has to happen.”
Gray says the investment in a purpose-built international cruise precinct follows discussions with cruise companies reluctant to bring the new wave of mega liners to Auckland because of the risk of having to anchor in the harbour and tender in passengers because of a lack of dedicated space.
“That’s a terrible customer experience. But bring them alongside, be processed through a purpose-built facility and be allowed to walk into the CBD is really nice, what a good customer experience is.
“It will assist shipping lines in further scheduling Auckland and New Zealand (for calls) with the bigger ships and mean we can compete against other ports with amazing cruise terminals at the base of their cities.
“We want to be one of those sort of ports, a global city where people have a global experience. Right now it’d be fair to say we haven’t been delivering a global competitive experience.”
Gray says New Zealand as a country needs to grow the cruise industry. Cruise tourism generated $1.23 billion in total economic output for New Zealand in the 2024-25 season.
“We’re seeing a very interesting change in the ships coming – very big ships carrying 4500 like Ovation of The Seas and small boutique ships with 600 passengers.
“A figure not well-known is Auckland has in excess of 300,000 cruise passengers a year – that’s 300,000 Americans, Europeans, Asians – we’ve seen growth in Japanese visitors – and Australians. They want an amazing experience. They want a seamless transfer on and off.
“That’s what global cities do. And that’s why we see this as being an absolutely fundamental investment to further the growth of Auckland on its journey to being a global city.”
Gray says Auckland shouldn’t underestimate the beauty of its harbours, the location of its port and the economic benefits of cruise tourism.
“We are building for the next 40 years at the port. We’re here to grow with the city and we want to help the city grow.
“People need to realise as well that as we continue to grow, we’ll lift our contribution to our owners. This financial year we are budgeting to deliver $95m net profit after tax and to pay a dividend of at least $52m.
“We are a very different organisation than perhaps we were in the past ... we say the ‘turnaround’ is done and now we are a highly performing asset for the city and for the people.
“And, we believe, a real enabler for the growth of Auckland as it grows into the global city it deserves to be.”
Port of Auckland is a sponsor of the Herald’s Project Auckland report.