Nine-hour turnaround at port for 266m container vessel

Container ship Kota Lihat had a quick nine-hour turnaround at Port Chalmers yesterday, before making its way back north towards Ports of Auckland.

The 266m-long, 32.2m-wide ship was photographed just after dawn, the stern of the container ship reflecting in Port Otago's office windows (left).

The ship arrived about 6am and departed at 3pm.

Port Otago chief pilot Hugh Marshall said the nine-hour turnaround was quite common, when there were not many container exchanges to be done.

Kota Lihat had arrived directly from Auckland and was heading for Lyttelton Port of Christchurch after leaving Port Chalmers, then back to Auckland, before continuing its usual route overseas to Asia.

Kota Lihat was alongside at the 300m container terminal berth. The 300m multipurpose berth, at the other end of the same wharf structure, is being extended by 140m in a $15million project.