The Professor Khromov ship (fka Spirit of Enderby) departed from Vladivostok Russia and docked on Monday, November 16, at Port Lyttelton (Christchurch, New Zealand) at the new USD 67 million cruise berth.
The vessel's 22 Russian crew have been in isolation for a total of 43 days, most of which spent at sea. They have already had 2 COVID testings before getting the third one on their arrival today.
According to commercial director Aaron Russ, the chartered Russian cruise ship had been in New Zealand in March 2020, before COVID-19 had become a significant issue. He added that basically since then they had been in close dialogue and he guessed working towards that day, the day when they could have "the ship back and look forward to sailing with passengers soon again."
MS Professor Khromov will sail to Invercargill (close to the southern tip of South Island NZ) to pick up its first cruisers next week and explore Stewart Island and Fiordland NP.