Under the heading "Cruise ship bonanza for businesses", the illustration in last Tuesday's Otago Daily Times Special Anniversary Edition shows the famous Queen Elizabeth 2 passing Pulling Point on its first visit on February 4, 1992.
That may have been the case when local cruise ship visits were fewer in numbers. In fact, QE2 was one of six ships that made nine visits in a much shorter season from January-April, 1992.
When the vessel, once the largest visitor to Port Chalmers, made its second and last visit 10 years later on February 9, 2002, the cruise ship season had extended from December 2001 to May 2002. And seven vessels made 24 calls.
In more recent times, the port has witnessed a steady increase in the number of cruise ships calling here annually.
All going well, the current season, which commenced on October 13 and ends on April 19, 2012 - has 19 ships booked to make 76 visits to Port Chalmers.
So the port is going to be busy, as it is today when two cruise ships are in port at the same time. Today's visitors are the 70,310gt Pacific Jewel, making its third visit for P&O Australia, and Princess Cruise's 77,499gt Sea Princess, on its fourth call. And next Thursday Pacific Dawn and Radiance of the Seas will be in together.
Two vessels making their initial calls on Mediterranean Shipping's Capricorn service were MSC London, in port last week, and MSC Monica, expected later this week.
The former is a 39,266gt vessel, that has been in service since September, 1986. It was the second of four 3074 TEU, 21.7-knot sister ships built at the Daewoo yard at Okpo, for the Hanjin Shipping Company of Seoul.
It traded as Hanjin Keelung until 2002, then as Keelung before receiving its present name during 2003. The vessel sails under the Liberian flag and is on charter to MSC from the Wilmington Shipping Corporation This company is a member of the Tsakos Shipping and Trading Group of Athens.
And with MSC London's visit these four sisters have now visited Port Chalmers for the Mediterranean Shipping Company. While MSC Didem is owned by this company, MSC's Brasilia and Sardinia are also chartered Tsakos ships.
As a matter of interest, the container ship Irenes Rainbow, due on its second visit today, is another Tsakos vessel that displays their funnel markings.
MSC Monica is a larger 37,398gt vessel designed to carry 3424 TEU and operate at 22.6 knots. The ship was ordered by Leonhardt and Blumberg of Hamburg from the Samsung yard at Koje, and was laid down on June 7, 1993.
The vessel was launched as Hansa Asia on August 14, 1993, but was completed two months later as the Hamburg-registered, chartered-out, Ville D'Aquila.
While still under this ownership, the vessel was renamed MSC Monica in 1997, and remained on charter until MSC eventually bought the vessel nine years ago.
