CRUISE WALK: The MS Volendam moored at Aotea Wharf

CHUCK and Carol Sprague’s tourist guidebook told them Wellington is “walkable”.

But when the US couple disembarked at Aotea Quay the 1.5km trek to the city was not what they expected.

The sight greeting them when they arrived in Wellington on Dutch cruise ship Volendam – piles of logs awaiting export – was a “real pity”, the Nebraska couple told NewsWire.

“Coming into the harbour was amazing, it was beautiful,” said Mrs Sprague. “But it’s sad to see all the trees [logs].”

The Spragues are two among possibly 100,000 people who will enter the Capital this season, arriving in 47 cruise ships.

Last season (2008/2009) some 102,000 got to see the log pile.

Centre Port security manager Karen Funnell says berthing at Aotea Quay – rather than the city-side Queens Warf or Overseas Terminal – is necessary because cruise ships get bigger each year.

“They just don’t fit anywhere else,” she says.

A recent visitor, Star Princess, weighed in at 109,000 tonnes and carried 2600 passengers.

Ms Funnell declined to comment of the quality of the walk from Aotea Quay to the centre of the city, but said it was only 1.5 kilometres from the wharf to town and all on the flat.

Positively Wellington Tourism and the Wellington City council provide transport shuttle busses for cruise ship passengers who do not wish to walk.

News Wire followed the blue line, a walking guide, from Aotea Quay to the start of Queens Warf:

Voice: Kara Lok
Photos and Story: Kylie Klein Nixon