Wellington (New Zealand)

Wellington Harbour cruise port is located on the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island. The harbour is among the world's best harbor waterways and is the center of an extinct, flooded volcano. Wellington is also known as "Windy City" as winds and fog are common for the region. Wellington is NZ's 3rd largest containership port and also has a large-capacity tanker terminal. The city is served by Wellington International Airport (aka Rongotai Airport, approx 3,5 ml / 5,5 km southeast from city centre) and also by Interislander ferries, with regularly scheduled daily crossings to Picton.

The port's cruise ship schedule lists major companies' vessels from the fleets of RCI (Royal Caribbean), Carnival Australia, Cunard (visiting on world cruises), P&O Australia, Celebrity, Holland America, Princess. The port benefits from the city's compact size, good infrastructure, popular among the day visitors activities and typical NZ vacation experiences on various shore excursions.

Port Wellington

CentrePort Wellington is jointly owned by Wellington Regional Council (77%) and Horizons Regional Council (23%). The port authority company also owns major inland freight hubs (New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Whanganui, Blenheim) allowing it to handle over 1/4 ( 27%) of NZ's domestic product, with reported over 14,000 shipping movements annually. Port's cruising season runs April through October.

Season 2017-2018 started with the RCI ship Radiance of the Seas - among the largest liners ever visiting Wellington NZ. The cruise port handled 82 ship calls and around 320,000 tourists (passengers and crew). This was a 12% increase over season 2016-2017 (with estimated USD 65,7 million added to the local economy). The 2017-18's inaugural calls were from NCL's Norwegian Jewel, Viking Ocean's Viking Sun and NYK Line's Asuka II.

For season 2018-2019, the port had booked 110 ship calls (estimated 320,000 passengers+crew), with scheduled inaugural visits by Norwegian Jewel (NCL), Viking Sun (Viking Ocean) and Asuka 2 (NYK Line). Port's schedule had 24 "two-ship" days. On March 16th, the port celebrated its 100th handled cruise ship call (by Golden Princess) made during 13-day NZ itinerary roundtrip from homeport Melbourne Australia.

For season 2019-2020 are already booked 120+ ship calls.

Wellington cruise terminal