A container ship had a bumpy ride on its maiden visit to Dunedin this week.
Maersk Norwich arrived at the Port Chalmers container terminal at 2am yesterday from Wellington with a tier of damaged shipping containers on its stern.
"She was coming down from the north on Tuesday and nine empty boxes were damaged," Maersk New Zealand managing director Julian Bevis said yesterday.
"It was just caused by very big seas. It's not uncommon. There was a wind force of eight or nine [Beaufort scale; about 75kmh] and a swell of 4m-6m," he said.
"No-one was hurt, thank God, although I guess it would have spilt a few cups of tea.
"The ship suffered some minor damage to lashings and rails, but there was no customer impact or schedule impact at all."
The containers would be repaired and returned to service, Mr Bevis said.
The 210m Maersk Norwich was scheduled to leave Port Chalmers for Singapore at 9pm yesterday.
