Larger cruise ship calls at S.I.

Press, 27 January 1986, Page 2

Larger cruise ship calls at S.I.

The Norwegian cruise ship Royal Viking Star called at Lyttelton and Picton at the week-end during a two-week cruise of Australia and New Zealand.

The Royal Viking Star is pictured at Cashin Quay, Lyttelton, on Saturday. Below, Mrs Harriet Folker of California, is seen helping herself to a late breakfast in the Neptune Bar of the ship.

Many of the passengers spent the day on sightseeing trips in Christchurch and on Banks Peninsula. The ship sailed for Pic-

ton on Saturday evening. She last visited Lyttelton in 1974, but is considerably larger than she was then. The Royal Viking Star has been cut in half and a 30m section added. She will make two more visits to Lyttelton on her Auckland - to - Sydney cruises this summer before sailing Asian cruises and back into the Northern Hemisphere. The 29,000-ton ship with about 700 passengers and 400 crew will berth at Wellington today before continuing to Auckland where the cruise ends and

another starts. She will return to Sydney via Wellington, Lyttelton, Milford Sound, Hobart, Melbourne arid Adelaide. The passengers are mostly Americans.

At Picton passengers enjoyed cruises in Queen Charlotte and Keneperu Sounds, coach trips to the Montana Winery and Blenheim, and about 35 passengers flew over Picton and the Sounds in a float plane. It was the first time for about five years that the ship had called at Picton, and it proved to be a popular stop.