The largest container ship ever to come to a New Zealand port berthed at Tauranga today.
The Aotea Maersk Photo: fleetmon.com
The Aotea Maersk arrived at lunchtime today, will be loaded up with dairy products and sail for North Asia in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
The ship weighs almost 92,000 tonnes and is almost 350m long.
It can carry 9640 20-foot containers.
Maersk New Zealand head Gerard Morrison said it was the start of a new service.
"We will be getting this ship and 10 of her sisters every week from now into the future," he said.
"There will be one every Tuesday from Tauranga up to Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan."
Mr Morrison said dredging to deepen the harbour at Tauranga made this possible.
The work was completed earlier this year.
