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Pacific Explorer first cruise ship back to New Zealand since shutdown

P&O Cruises Australia’s flagship Pacific Explorer received a traditional Maori welcome when she berthed at Queens Wharf in Auckland Friday.

Helen Hutcheon, Australasia correspondent

August 12, 2022

1 Min Read
Credit: Seatrade Cruise News

The 2,000-passenger Pacific Explorer, on a 12-night round cruise from Sydney to New Zealand and Fiji, is the first international cruise ship to arrive since New Zealand’s borders fully reopened on July 31 after being closed since March 2020.

NZCA conference

Her arrival highlights the annual conference of the New Zealand Cruise Association which will be held in Auckland on August 18 after being postponed for the last two years.

‘This is an exciting day for P&O and an exciting day for cruising,’ Marguerite Fitzgerald, president of Carnival Australia and P&O Cruises Australia, said.

Fitzgerald said Pacific Explorer will return to Auckland in 2023 for a homeported cruise season.

Rebuilding industry

Joel Katz, MD of Cruise Lines International Association Australasia, said the New Zealand cruise community can now begin rebuilding an industry that was previously worth almost NZ$570m a year to the New Zealand economy.

‘New Zealand has now joined the rest of the world in a careful resumption of cruise operations,’ Katz said. 

‘We now have an opportunity to revive a sector that previously supported many thousands of jobs in communities around the New Zealand coast.’ 

About the Author

Helen Hutcheon

Australasia correspondent

Helen Hutcheon did her cadetship on a shipping magazine and worked in P&O’s Sydney office for seven years as a public relations journalist.

For 19 years she was deputy editor of Travel Week, which was Australia’s leading trade newspaper that covered major local and international industry events.

In 2008 the late legendary Rama Rebbapragada presented her with an award from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd ‘in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the cruising industry.’

In 2010 she won the Neil Frazer Award for ‘outstanding contribution to the cruise industry,’ elevating her to CLIA Australasia’s hall of fame.

She has been the Australasia correspondent for Seatrade Cruise Review since 1997 and for Seatrade Insider (now Seatrade Cruise News) since its launch in 2000.

 

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