From P1: A $500m ‘blank canvas’

same berths as cargo ships, with those passengers who choose to get off lining up under a marquee before boarding buses into the city.

‘‘Losing that ability to walk off the wharf puts a lot of pressure on actually finding the buses to get [passengers] into the city to start spending their money.’’

With more than 100 cruise chips coming into the city each season, Milford said visitors needed to be given the ‘‘best possible vista’’ and the ‘‘best possible interaction with the city’’.

‘‘How many ports in the country have a blank canvas?’’

CentrePort is finalising insurance payouts from damage caused by the 2016 Kaiko¯ ura earthquake.

It has, so far, secured $170 million in insurance from property damage, with another $350m in the pipeline for material damage.

An undisclosed amount was being negotiated for business interruption, meaning the final figure was likely to be well over $500m.

Chief executive Derek Nind said all of that money would be used for ‘‘repair and replace’’ works.

‘‘We’ll need all of those resources.’’ However, he was coy on specific plans, saying they would depend on the final amount received and the condition of each of the port’s 120-plus assets.

But he did confirm a multimilliondollar dredging project, once seen as ‘‘essential’’ to the port’s long-term redevelopment plans, had been put on hold.

The deepening of the harbour would have accommodated larger container ships but probably wouldn’t have affected cruise ships, he said.

That sent a signal in and of itself, New Zealand Shipping Federation executive director Annabel Young said.

‘‘If they’re saying they don’t need to dredge, that’s telling you about the size of ships that are coming in."

Auckland-based urban geographer Ben Ross said major cities with land constraints, like Auckland and Wellington, were considering how their ports could be reconfigured to use land better.

Freight and transport had very different needs and mixing traffic from both was not ideal, Ross said.

Key to the cruise ship experience was providing a facility for people to easily walk into a city.

Joel Katz, managing director of the Australasian branch of Cruise Lines International Association, said cruise ships were a ‘‘very significant’’ source of inbound tourism for the country.

‘‘If the cruise sector were a country, it would be the fourth-largest source of visitors to New Zealand, behind Australia, China, and the USA, and ahead of the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.’’

Summers said Wellington, as a capital city, often ended up on cruise ship itineraries but that didn’t mean it was a ‘‘shoo-in’’ for cruise ship business.

‘‘The cruise lines have stuck with Wellington and continue to go there but any investment in the future would be gratefully received, I know, by the cruise sector, for sure.’’

While Milford supported better cruise ship facilities, he believed CentrePort should continue to be used for freight despite the prominence of other ports.

‘‘We have a country that has infrastructure issues. Do we really want to put all our eggs in one basket?’’

Nind said the port’s regeneration plan was still being developed and no options had been discounted. ‘‘We need to be conscious of the impact that decisions may have on other parts of the business. The challenge is ensuring an optimal outcome for all parties.’’