Large liners will visit Lyttelton

Press, 7 February 1985, Page 4

Large liners will visit Lyttelton

Lyttelton is gearing up for one of the biggest influxes of tourists to visit the port.

Between February 9 and February 20 Lyttelton will be host to three luxury passenger liners carrying in total about 2900 passengers, mostly North Americans and West Germans. The first of the three liners, the 24,000-ton Sagafjord, is due to berth at Cashin Quay at 8 a.m. on February 9. She will be carrying about 800 passengers on the liner’s 1985 Circle Pacific and Orient Odyssey cruise. The Sagafjord will be in port for less than a day, leaving for Milford Sound and Sydney at 6 p.m. Voted “Ship of the Year” in 1982 and 1983 by the World Ocean and Cruise Liner Society, the Sagafjord was bought by Cunard Line in October, 1983, to cater for the “top end of the cruise market.”

She called at Lyttelton in 1974 and 1976 when she was owned and run by Norwegian and American Cruises, Ltd.

At 8 a.m. on February 11 the flagship of the world’s cruising fleet, the 67,140-ton Queen Elizabeth 2, will berth at Cashin Quay No. 2 and No. 3 after an overnight trip from Wellington. She will be in port for 10 hours, sailing for Milford Sound and Sydney at 6 p.m. The Queen Elizabeth 2 will be making her maiden call at Lyttelton, one of only four new ports added to the 40-port itinerary on her eleventh round-the-world cruise.

She will be the biggest vessel of any type to call at the port and will be piloted to her berth by the Lyttelton Harbourmaster, Captain J. A. Barbour.

The Queen Elizabeth 2 will have on board about 1450 passengers, who will include 250 New Zealanders, and a British crew of 1000.

She is described by her owner, Cunard Line, as the world’s most luxurious cruise liner “with no expense spared to provide every amenity for the comfort and relaxation of the passengers.” She can accommodate up to 1800 passengers, 70 cars, and 30 cats and dogs. There are 13 decks, 10 of which are for the use of passengers. Powered by 110,000 horsepower engines, the vessel can reach a speed of almost 30 knots. The liner boasts four restaurants, two public lounges, a shopping arcade (including a branch of Harrods), a 530-seat cinema, eight bars, two libraries,' four swimming pools (two outdoor, two indoor), a wellequipped hospital, a hairdressing salon and barber shop, sauna, massage, casino, and top-name entertainers and lecturers.

A number of special events have been planned to welcome the liner to Canterbury, beginning with a breakfast cruise by the historic tug Lyttelton, which will meeet her when she arrives at the Heads about 7 a.m.

The tug Lyttelton Historical Society plans to run short excursions from the No. 2 wharf to the Queen

Elizabeth 2’s berth at Cashin Quay during the day. The tug will also escort the liner from the harbour on her departure. Sixty members of the Christchurch Harmonic Society will give a recital on board the liner at 4 p.m. They will sing a series of folk songs and Negro spirituals.

The Skellerup Woolston Band will entertain passengers from the quayside shortly before the Queen Elizabeth 2 sails. Plans for a Maori welcome and arrangements for the Lyttelton Museum and Timeball Station to be specially opened are still to be finalised by the Lyttelton development committee. The Queen Elizabeth 2 will follow in the wake of the Sagafjord to Milford Sound and join her sister ship at Sydney on February 14.

Cunard has planned a special Concorde flight to Sydney to coincide with the arrivals of the two vessels.

The last of the passenger liners to call will be the 34,000-ton West German vessel Europa, which is due on February 20.

The liner will also call at Auckland, Napier, Timaru, and Milford Sound as part of the New Zealand leg of her 1985 Pacific cruise. It is the first time her owner, the Hapag-Lloyd Line, has brought her to the South Island, the ship having called at Wellington and Auckland in 1983.

The Europa is the newest of the three liners, built in 1981, with accommodation for 600 passengers.