New Zealand’s first cruise ship in two-and-a-half years
After a hiatus through the COVID pandemic, the Aotearoa / New Zealand 2022/23 cruise ship season has begun following the lifting of the country's maritime boarder to international cruise ships (lifted at midnight on the 31st July, 2022[1]), with the first cruise ship to visit New Zealand shores docking at the Port of Tauranga over the last weekend (15th October).
For the Bay of Plenty region, the last full summer cruise season contributed almost $90 million to the local economy, while nationally the cruise industry injected close to $550 million to the country's economy.[2]
“This is a significant milestone for our port clients, as well as the individual regions and national economy,” says Dr Stine Sorensen, MetOcean’s Tactical Account Executive. “It is exciting to see their operations returning to full speed after COVID-19 restrictions being lifted within the maritime space.”
“While there might have been a pause within the cruise industry nationally, we have been continuing to improve our products with cutting-edge technology and science to support port operations,” continues Stine. “Our forecasts are fully customised to each port and include high-resolution marine weather guidance for all harbour operations, this has included deploying high resolution atmospheric models to capture some of the highly localised topographical effects on wind speeds and directions in complex environments such as Marlborough Sounds.”
Example of operational threat matrix customisable to specific operational requirements. This information is available to our clients via email, online access via MetOceanView or embedded into their systems.
From extensive research on long wave surges to producing port-scale marine forecasts, MetOcean Solutions has developed innovative tools to assist port operators, pilots, tug boat masters and marine managers with making informed decisions. Our solutions are designed to increase safety and efficiency of marine operations in ports and harbours.
Through our web portal, MetOceanView, we provide a robust platform to access, monitor and manipulate weather information at a high-resolution domain for port operations.
Contact us at enquiries@metocean.co.nz for more information.