Cruise ship with no passengers to dock in Tauranga

A cruise ship with no passengers will stay in Tauranga for five nights this week, which is being hailed as an "unprecedented visit".

The Port of Tauranga released a statement today saying that it was "extremely rare" for a cruise ship to stay more than one night and as the Noordam sails in this week, it will have no passengers on it, just crew.

The "unprecedented visit" of the 286-metre Noordom will see only the crew staying onboard due to schedule changes.

A Port of Tauranga spokeswoman confirmed the changes were nothing to do with Covid-19 being on the ship and to her knowledge, the ship had not been turned away from any other ports.

The Noordam in 2017. Photo / File

The changes were due to cruise ships around the world changing their itineraries and a five-day gap popping up as a result of this.

The cruise ship chose Tauranga as it regularly visited the location and just asked for an extended layover.

Port of Tauranga chief operating officer Leonard Sampson said the layover was a unique event and local businesses will benefit from having several hundred crew members staying in the Bay of Plenty.

"The vessel had been operating in the South Pacific all summer and all crew on board meet health authority requirements," he said.

All cruise and cargo ships visiting Port of Tauranga strictly follow Ministry of Health regulations regarding the health status of the people on board.

Because of the Covid-19 outbreak, ship captains must also declare whether the ship or anyone else on board has been in a Covid-19 hot spot within 14 days.

Cruise Lines International Association members were currently denying boarding to any crew or passengers that had been in or transited through China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Iran or northern Italy within the past 14 days.