Napier Port is in Napier,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, on

Hawke Bay Hawke Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui), formerly named ''Hawke's Bay'', is a large bay on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand, surrounded by the Hawke's Bay region. It stretches from Māhia Peninsula in the northeast to Cape Kidnapp ...

. It is the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

's second largest export port by tonnage, and is owned by Napier Port Holdings Limited (). The port is connected to the rail network via the Napier Port Branch (

Ahuriri Branch The Ahuriri Branch, now named the Napier Port Branch, is a 2 km railway branch line off the Palmerston North–Gisborne Line, in Napier, New Zealand. The branch serves the Port of Napier. Ahuriri by the Inner Harbour, originally called S ...

). It hosts dozens of cruise ship visits each year. On 16 February 2008 it was visited by the longest vessel it had received at the time, the

MS Queen Victoria MS ''Queen Victoria'' (''QV'') is a operated by the Cunard Line and is named after the former United Kingdom, British monarch Queen Victoria. The vessel is of the same basic design as other Vista-class cruise ship (2002), Vista-class cruise sh ...

cruise ship belonging to

Cunard Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Berm ...

. On December 15, 2014, the 138,194 tonne

MS Voyager of the Seas MS, ms, Ms, M.S., etc. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ms.'' (magazine), an American feminist magazine * Metal Storm (webzine), a heavy metal website based in Estonia Businesses and organizations * MS-13, criminal gang * Missionaries ...

visited the port, which was the joint 21st largest passenger ship at the time, and the largest to ever visit. On 5 January 2017, the port hosted the world's third largest cruise ship (at the time), the 168,666 tonne

MS Ovation of the Seas ''Ovation of the Seas'' is a owned by Royal Caribbean International (RCI) and the third ship of her class. The ''Quantum'' class is the List of largest cruise ships, third largest class of cruise ships behind MSC Cruises's ''Meraviglia'' clas ...

. Hastings District, as one of the largest apple, pear and stone fruit producing areas in New Zealand has an important relationship with the Napier Port. It has also become an important grape growing and wine production area with the fruit passing from the growers around Metropolitan Hastings and then to Napier for exporting. Napier is an important service centre for the agriculture and pastoral output of the predominantly rural Hastings District. The port handled 157,700 containers (roughly 9% of all containers handled by New Zealand ports) in the 2015 calendar year, behind the ports of Auckland, Tauranga and Lyttelton. A public poll was held in January 1885 on the decision to move the port from the Ahuriri spit to its current location, beneath Bluff Hill. The breakwater harbor was completed in 1886, and the container depot was established in 1994. A new wharf is currently being planned (as of early 2016) to handle projected volume growth and larger vessels, and will be the port's largest ever single investment, at $50 million NZD. This will help to maintain the port's position as the fourth-largest container terminal in the country, processing more containers than

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

and

New Plymouth New Plymouth ( mi, Ngāmotu) is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, Devon from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. ...

combined.

References

External links

*
Ahuriri website
( Port Ahuriri, Napier's main port before relocation)
Cyclopedia of NZ: Napier Harbour Board history 1875-1908, biographies and photos
Buildings and structures in Napier, New Zealand Napier Napier, Port {{HawkesBay-geo-stub