Luxury liner to visit Lyttelton and Timaru

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 3

Luxury liner to visit Lyttelton and Timaru

The luxury West German cruise liner Europa will include Lyttelton and Timaru on the New Zealand leg of her 1985 Pacific cruise.

The Europa, owned by the Hapag-Lloyd Line, will call at Lyttelton on February 20, just nine days after the planned visit of the passenger liner Queen Elizabeth 2.

She will be in port for five hours and will berth at Timaru on February 21, announced the vessel’s New Zealand agents, Seabridge New Zealand, yesterday.

The release of the Europa’s New Zealand itiner-

ary comes after the recent visit of Hapag-Lloyd’s tour director, Mr J. Meyer. The vessel will also call at Auckland, Napier, and Milford Sound.

It will be the 34,000-ton ship’s first visit to the South Island. She called at Wellington and Auckland earlier this year. The regional manager of Seabridge, Mr P. T. Rea, said that sightseeing tours of Christchurch and surrounding districts would be arranged for passengers. A two-day inland tour from Timaru, was also

planned, Mr Rea said. The trip would include visits to a high country station, South Canterbury Maori rock drawings, and stops at Queenstown and Te Anau. Passengers taking the trip would rejoin the Europa at Milford Sound on February 23.

The Europa was built in 1981 and carries 600 passengers.

Although the vessel’s world cruise programme changed yearly, Mr Rea said he hoped she would include South Island ports on future cruises.