Two cruise ships docked in Port Chalmers this morning shortly after each other. The first was the Maasdam (Rotterdam), and the Second was the Dawn Princess (Hamilton). Both ships are docked here for the day and will depart Port Chalmers later this afternoon, at 17:00 and 17:30 respectively.
The Maasdam sails from the Netherlands and calls Rotterdam its home port. It has a deadweight of 7400 tons and can host about 1250 passengers. The Dawn Princess is from Hamilton, Bermuda, Weighs 8300 Tons, and can host close too 2000 passengers.
For those of you who think that sounds like a lot, (and yes it actually is) you would have been really impressed if you managed to catch a glimpse of the beautiful new and highly talked about "Ovation Of The Seas" which was docked in Port Chalmers on Tuesday last week. This ship has a 12000 Ton deadweight, and can host approximately 4900 people.
It's an incredible feat in engineering and drew crowds from as far as Oamaru, who drove down to see it depart the harbour mouth last week Tuesday afternoon. Ovation of The Seas has been talked about all over the world, and since her maiden voyage in April last year, the internet has lit up with video and photographic footage of her stops all over the world.
- Jason Fouche
