Passengers on a Silversea-owned cruise ship (which docked in Port Auckland NZ Tuesday morning, March 17) will be allowed to disembark, despite voyages being banned from New Zealand for months.
Silver Muse was on a 2-week trip from Sydney NSW to Auckland which ended early today. The vessel has already called in Melbourne, Burnie, Hobart, Dunedin, Lyttelton NZ, Picton NZ.
On Saturday, March 14, NZ's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced tough travel restrictions, including asking all cruise vessels not to visit New Zealand until June 30. However, PoAL clarified that cruise ships already in New Zealand waters at the time of this announcement would not be banned.
Ports spokesman Matthew Ball said Silver Muse and another 4 vessels that had been in New Zealand territorial waters at the time of the ban will be allowed to berth.
All Silver Muse passengers will be disembarking and will go through the normal Customs & Ministry for Primary Industries processing. As they had entered NZ waters before the cut-off date was announced, they are not required to self-isolate. Most passengers will be heading home.
For Coronavirus updates on cruise ship quarantines (infected passengers and crew) and top-pandemic countries (COVID-19 cases and deaths, daily updated statistics) see at CruiseMapper's Norovirus page.