Seventh cruise ship to anchor in Bay for a day, tomorrow

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

The next cruise ship to call into Tūranganui-a-Kiwa/Poverty this cruise season has been here only once before several years ago, and only briefly on that day to drop off two unwell passengers.

Crystal Symphony will go to anchor in The Bay at around 10am tomorrow, arriving from Tauranga, and she will sail for Napier at 6pm.

The ship entered service in May 1995 and was docked in Sydney Harbour for the Olympics in 2000.

She was refitted in 2006 and in 2009, then in 2012 had a two-week “extreme makeover”.

Crystal Symphony weighs in at 51,044 gross tonnes, is 238 metres long, 30.18m at the beam and has a draught of 7.59m.

The ship has 12 decks and travels at 20 knots (37 kmh) standard speed and 21 knots (39 kmh) maximum speed.

She carries 960 passengers at capacity and has a crew of 545.

The passengers on board this trip will be ferried ashore as usual in the ship’s tenders and a range of excursions have been planned including bus and cycle tours, Wa 165 steam train rides, and farm and winery tours.

This will be the seventh cruise ship visit so far this season.