Keen to keep going with port's Double Up markets

Author and business consultant Julie Fawcett is keen to "put Port Chalmers on the map" by running her Double Up Cruise Ship markets throughout the new cruise ship season.

Miss Fawcett ran Double Up markets twice last cruise ship season and twice early this season, including attracting more than 1300 customers on October 18.

The markets, at the Port Chalmers Town Hall, were offered to cater for extra demand when two cruise ships were in port on the same day.

Miss Fawcett, of Port Chalmers, ran her fourth market yesterday to cater for the extra needs of a mass of tourists from the cruise ships Sea Princess and Radiance of the Seas.

The organising required "an enormous amount of work", but she was happy to do this, to "put Port Chalmers on the map" and to promote a "beautiful place" and many beautiful art, craft and other products produced by artisans in Port Chalmers and elsewhere in Dunedin and Otago.

After the success of the earlier Double Up markets, she had decided to offer the market on all 22 days this cruise ship season when two such vessels would be in port on the same day.

The market provided high-quality products that serviced an "unmet need" on busy double days, and worked collaboratively with existing businesses in Port Chalmers.

Bob Gibson, who sells distinctive pens at the market, which are made from carving gorse wood, said he found it was "pretty good" and it attracted many customers.

Octagon Market Inc Society president Lorene Rosie said the Octagon market, which had operated for the past 22 years, welcomed the Port Chalmers "double up" initiative.

Both markets offered positive outlets for Dunedin and Otago artisans, and the new market was a "brilliant" development, she said.