15.01 Napier Port: Comings & Goings

1.A Welcome Boxes at Napier Port's West Entrance

1.B Perspective on Napier Port from Breakwater Road, State Route 50

Anyone living in Napier's Ahuriri district can tell you that there's much coming and going in or near the neighborhood. The district's next-door neighbor—to the east—is Napier Port. In descending order of frequency, one sees trucks, trains, and ships entering and leaving the port '24/7', as they say. As in any other human activity, there are rhythms  governed by the time and seasons. For example, cruise ships, besides a few outliers, call at the port from late November to early April. More basically, there's probably a preference by ship masters to arrive or depart from the port in daylight, all other things being equal.

Not that Napier presents difficult navigational passages to and from the high seas. On the contrary, the port is not in a natural harbourage. It's at the foot of a bluff and would be entirely exposed to wind and waves were it not for the breakwater developed following the 1931 Napier earthquake. Before the earthquake, as I understand matters, the townsfolk had been divided over the issue whether to develop  harbourage in Ahuriri and the Ahuriri Lagoon or to create the man-made affair that now exists to the east of Ahuriri. The earthquake raised the Ahuriri Lagoon, thereby putting the issue to rest. The photo immediately below provides a view of the eastern part of Napier Port from the Bluff Hill Domain (Kiwis use the term 'domain' for urban parks).

1.C Diagram at the Overlook from Bluff Hill Domain

Napier Port bills itself as the 'leading port for central New Zealand'. 'Central New Zealand' is a somewhat ambivalent phrase. The phrase can't refer to either the central North Island or the central South Island. If it did, the claim would be false. Tauranga, among other things, is the leading port for the central North Island, just as Lyttleton—in metro Christchurch—is the leading port (among other things) for the central South Island. Presumably 'central New Zealand' embraces the south end of the North Island and the north end of the South Island. That's at least a geographical argument for locating the country's capital at a place like Wellington, at the south end of the North Island.

But it's not an argument for Napier's being the lead port for central New Zealand. Yet the port is, even displacing in importance the Port of Wellington, at least as determined by the number of containers handled. Container traffic worldwide is measured by a unit called the 'TEU', which equates to a Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit container or box. Each of the two welcome boxes in the lead photo, above, I'm guessing equate to 1/2 TEU. Here below are pictures of TEUs (i.e. 20-foot containers) on a train and 40-foot containers (each equating to 2 TEUs) stacked in the port. Forty-foot containers (standard, insulated, or refrigerated) have become prevalent in international commerce.

1.D 20-Foot Maersk Containers on an Outbound Train

1.E 40-Foot Containers Stacked Six High

Containerization got underway in the 1960s, impelled by the entrepreneurship of Malcom McLean in the USA and by the logistical needs of the USA in the Vietnamese War (A helpful history of containerization is The Box, by Marc Levinson). When Napier 'containerized', its employment of 'wharfies' dropped from about 550 to about 50, a drop rendered possible by the investment in the requisite container-handling infrastructure. In the early 1970s in New Zealand it was realized that not all of the country's numerous ports would be able to participate in container traffic (as opposed to what is usually called 'bulk traffic' in coal, oil, wheat, timber, etc.). The port infrastructure costs associated with containerization are substantial. In the early 1970s a government commission foresaw that Auckland and Wellington would become the primary container ports for the North Island.

This expectation has proven wrong in several ways. While Auckland has so far maintained its status as New Zealand's No. 1 import port, measured by TEUs, Tauranga is the No. 1 port overall, when measured by TEUs and bulk traffic. Indeed, Tauranga is the No. 1 export port measured by TEUs. And Napier Port has become No. 4 port overall, following Tauranga, Auckland, and Lyttleton. Wellington has little significance in New Zealand's international container traffic.

Tauranga's ascent was in part the product of political and entrepreneurial initiatives arising in Tauranga. In part it was the result of the completion in 1978 of the 8.88-km (5.5-mile) Kaimai Tunnel, cutting three hours from the transit times for freight trains operating between Tauranga and Hamilton, key city in the North Island's dairy-rich Waikato Region and Tauranga's connection to the North Island Main Trunk line. It's entirely possible that Tauranga will eclipse Auckland as the No. 1 import port. 

All other things being equal in container transportation, shipping tariffs will favor those points or corridors most balanced in inbound and outbound traffic. If a commodity can be shipped in a box (broadly defined), those who produce or consume that commodity will favor highly balanced ports, railway lines, and trucking corridors because lower rates come with traffic balance. For a port to thrive in the containerization era it must be concerned not only to have technologically advanced infrastructure, it must be concerned with traffic balance.

Because of the voluminous outbound 'box' traffic that Tauranga serves, it's best positioned of all New Zealand's ports to balance inbound and outbound box traffic. Moreover it's not constrained on its land side the way Auckland's Waitemata Harbour is constrained. Meanwhile Auckland and Napier can and do play significant roles in New Zealand's international container traffic. 

Napier is playing its TEU cards well, I gather, having captured container traffic that might have otherwise moved, say, through Wellington or Port Taranaki (at New Plymouth). Fonterra, New Zealand's large dairy cooperative, favors Napier Port, for example, for shipments from the dairy-rich Taranaki Region almost surely because maritime shipping lines offer better TEU rates over Napier Port versus over Port Taranaki. Thus, Napier Port is the top container port for 'central New Zealand', at least for right now. 

I wouldn't hazard a guess as to how Napier Port will fare, say, 50 years from now in handling TEUs. I will hazard the guess that Tauranga is likely to be the No. 1 export and import port for New Zealand. As container ships become larger (and they're getting larger), New Zealand may have no choice but to allow Tauranga to become the sole international container port for the North Island (and perhaps for all of New Zealand), with Auckland, Napier, and Lyttleton having a secondary or emergency role vis-à-vis Tauranga.

1.F East End of Napier Port's Container Yard

1.G Incoming Container Ship with Two Tugs, 8 November 2014

1.H Maneuvering the Container Ship to the Container Pier

1.I Nudging the Ship to the Container Pier

Napier Port is likely to have a continuing role to play in handling bulk traffic. Timber traffic thru Napier Port could become even more substantial than is currently the case if freight service is restored for all or a portion of the Palmerston North - Gisborne Line ('PNGL'), a railway line running 214 km (133 miles) north of Napier. Within the next few years vast, maturing forest plantations in the hinterlands of the North Island's East Coast are to be harvested. The harvesting will inundate the East Coast's limited highway capacity unless relieved by a restored PNGL. Whether Napier Port or other political or commercial interests promote the restoration of the PNGL remains to be seen.

1.J Incoming Log Trucks at Napier Weigh Station along State Route 50

1.K A Container & Timber Train Arriving in Ahuriri

1.L Flatcars with Logs Near the Liquid Bulk Terminal at Napier Port

1.M Vessel at the Timber Loading Pier, 8 November 2014

In the meantime, living in Ahuriri affords one the opportunity to see how globalization is made possible by containerization. Boxes can do amazing things.

Happy New Year,

Tim (& Jean)

PS. In preparing this blogpost I greatly benefited from reading The Saltwater Highway: The Story of Ports and Shipping in New Zealand, by Gordon McLauchlan, published in 2012, available for purchase at least in New Zealand upon publication of this blog post.

PPS. Jean and I visited Bluff Hill Domain, overlooking Napier Port, first on 8 November and then again this past Monday, 30 December 2014. On Monday late afternoon there were six ships in the port. Here's some information about the visitors, drawn from Napier Port's website and MarineTraffic.com.

Ship: Flag: Previous Port: Next Port (if known): Cargo

AAL Hong Kong: Marshall Islands: Wellington: Tauranga: General Cargo

Southern Tiare: Cook Islands: Timaru: To be advised:  General Cargo

Spirit of Auckland: Singapore: Port Chalmers (Dunedin): Tauranga: Containers

Sunny Napier II: Panama: Tomakomai: Osaka: Woodpulp

Tesoro: Panama: New Plymouth: Tauranga: Logs

Thor Independence: Singapore: Casablanca :Lyttleton: Fertilizer

1.N Spirit of Auckland at Container Pier, 30 December 2014

1.O Two EMD DF Class Locomotives in the Lead on the 4:30 PM Outbound KiwiRail Train

1.P Empty Log Flats on the 4:30 PM Outbound

1.Q Containers on the 4:30 PM Outbound

1.R Boxes, Ships, Cranes, and Sky

1.S MS Dawn Princess in Napier Port, 8 November 2014

1.T MS Voyager of the Seas, 15 December 2014

1.U MS Voyager of the Seas Leaving Napier Port

PPPS.  A subsequent blogpost surveys New Zealand road, rail, air, and maritime transport, using speculations about the country's transport futures to (among other things) cast a light on New Zealand's current transport infrastructure.

14.08 Taumarunui: A Forgotten World Adventure or Two

8.A Pilot Cart Heading into Another Tunnel on the Stratford-Okahukura Line

When Jean and I lived in Te Awamutu in the first half of 2013, in her work for the Waikato District Health Board ('WDHB') she traveled to two outlying clinics. One was in Te Kuiti, about forty minutes south of Te Awamutu, and the other in Taumarunui, about two hours south (at least for foreign drivers like us). As I've reported in a previous post, Taumarunui was once an important railway and lumber center. With the closure of numerous lumber mills and with the electrification of the North Island Main Trunk Railway ('NIMT') the town's economic significance dwindled and its population dropped from around 6500 in 1986 to around 4500 in the 2013 census.

We traveled back to Taumarunui, Te Awamutu, and Hamilton this past weekend to visit former colleagues of Jean's and to visit friends of ours at St John's in Te Awamutu. We had very pleasant visits. We were also drawn to Taumarunui by the desire to experience an adventure or two on offer from a Taumarunui-based enterprise called Forgotten World Adventures ('FWA'). The enterprise began operations in 2012 and now offers 'rail, river, and trail' adventures in New Zealand's King Country. 

During New Zealand's Land Wars in the 19th Century the King Country served as a redoubt for the so-called Kingitanga Movement, which established (among other things) what has become an enduring monarchy among the Māori iwi (tribes). The King Country served as a redoubt because of its extraordinarily crumpled and vexingly complex topography. I hope the photos that follow begin to suggest the topography that thwarted military movements against the Māori and hindered the completion of railway lines in the King Country. The NIMT was opened in 1908. The Stratford-Okahukura Line ('SOL'), with its 24 tunnels in 89 miles (144 km), was completed in 1932. The FWA rail adventures operate over the SOL, which traverses some of the most inaccessible regions of the King Country.

8.B King Country (Sawtooth) Ridgelines

8.C A King Country Sentinel Tree & Cattle Below

8.D King Country Isn't Rolling Country

8.E King Country Bush and Pastureland

8.F More King Country Piled Topography

Today the King Country along the SOL is either pastureland or what Kiwis call 'bush'. Bush is wilderness, which in this part of New Zealand is forested. Had we taken a so-called '20 Tunnel Tour', I understand we would have encountered a good deal of bush west of the point where we disembarked. A map depicting the routes of Forgotten World Adventures ('FWA') appears here.

Jean and I participated in what FWA calls its 'Rail & River Run', which entails both a 10-tunnel journey on the SOL and a ride up or down the Whanganui River on a jet boat. The FWA rail ventures entail customers traveling in former golf carts. The carts, imported from the state of Georgia (USA), are equipped with flanged wheels of steel or of heavy-duty plastic. Forgotten World Adventures favors the use of plastic wheels because they are quieter (and it has retrofitted carts accordingly). The carts come in two-person and four-person versions. Here's a photo of the one we rode from Okahukura. 

8.G Our Forgotten World Adventures 2-Person Cart

As you might imagine, those who venture out on the SOL thru Forgotten World Adventures do so not solo but in the company of what I'll call a 'cart convoy'. In the lead is a 'pilot cart' run by an FWA guide, who is in charge of the convoy. The guide is responsible not only for the convoy's safe transit. She or he acts as a jack-of-all-trades.  Among other things, our guide, Maree, was responsible for clearing away windfall on the line, shooing away sheep that had somehow managed to enter the right-of-way, and serving tea at an enroute halt. Not least, Maree was a congenial, knowledgeable and attentive guide who helped make ours an instructive and memorable journey on the rails. At each halt she had stories to tell about places or people that we, her fellow rail cartwheelers, had likely never known of, much less forgotten.

8.H Waiting for the Entire Convoy to Arrive at a Halt

8.I Maree Wheeling Her Pilot Cart, Leading the Convoy Towards a Tunnel

8.J Cartwheelers Inspecting a Water-Challenged Tunnel Portal

Our convoy of cartwheelers included a couple with their young son from the Isle of Jersey, who like us were booked for the Rail & River Run. Additionally about a dozen ladies, teachers from Taumarunui, were out on a ten-tunnel group venture to celebrate the end of the school year. Here are some more photos of the line we all traversed from Okahukura. 

8.K Narrow Rail and Road Rights-of-Way

8.L Cattle Browsing (Above) / Outbuildings (Below) 

8.M Typical Open Deck Girder Bridge on the SOL (Perspective Above/Detail Below)

8.N Typical Ballast Fouling at a Tunnel Entrance

8.O A Vegetation-Challenged & Slip-Challenged Tunnel Entrance

8.P At a Halt in a Tunnel

8.Q Brick Lining (vs Concrete) Typical of Most
Tunnels that the 10 Tunnel Convoy Traversed

8.R Tangent CWR Track on the SOL

KiwiRail suspended service on the Stratford-Okahukura Line in 2009, mothballing the line. In 2012 it elected to lease the line's use to the Forgotten World Adventures enterprise. KiwiRail and its predecessor enterprises must have invested in the line right up to its mothballing. The evidence of this is in the continuous welded rail ('CWR') sections, Pandrol fittings, and even occasional concrete ties (sleepers). The engineering challenge to FWA is simply to keep the line open, especially clearing away slippages in the winter season, when ventures out on the SOL aren't (yet) offered to the public. 

Hopefully, Forgotten World Adventures will prosper. The enterprise seems well organized and thoughtfully designed. It has created about two dozen new jobs in Taumarunui. All things considered, the King Country suffers more industrial archaeology than would be desired. Some of that archaeology along the SOL is a reminder of what can happen when enterprises loose their vitality or purpose or capacity to serve economically.

8.S Cartwheelers Disembarking to Inspect
 Matiere Station Remnants

8.T Mine Office at an Abandoned Coal Mine

8.U Two More Tunnel Approaches

Our convoy of carts came to a last stop at a place called Tokirima, where Forgotten World Adventures has established a picnic area. An FWA associate from Taumarunui had driven out and prepared a picnic, where we cartwheelers were afforded the opportunity to eat fresh sandwiches of our own confection. Available ingredients included ham, cheese, fresh greens, relishes, and so forth. And of course there were a variety of beverages. An incoming FWA bus brought customers who would cartwheel it back to Okahukura, after themselves having lunch at Tokirima. That same bus took those of us on the Rail & River venture to a spot on the Whanganui River where we met the jet boat that would take us back to Taumarunui. The teachers who'd been on the 10 Tunnel tour rode back to Taumarunui by bus, after we'd cast off on our way upriver. Our river pilot, Ron, from time to time stopped the boat to tell us stories about the people who'd used the river and the places that cosseted its waters. He was a superb pilot and storyteller.

8.V Jet Boat Arriving for Return Journey to Taumarunui on the Whanganui River

8.W Jet Boat Easing In

We had great experiences on the Rail & River Run and would highly recommend it to others. For those not desiring a jet boat ride, Forgotten World Adventures offers plenty of other rail cartwheeling options through the beautiful King Country of the North Island.

Merry Christmas,
Tim (& Jean)

PS During our brief visit to the central North Island we ambled around the Victoria Street district of Hamilton. The city has what may one day be an internationally recognized botanical garden (as I briefly described here). And in that vein Hamilton deserves more recognition for its parks. Here below are two photos I took in the park domain between Victoria Street and the Waikato River.

PPS On 2 April 2017 Timsvideochannel1 (no connection with me) published on YouTube a video entitled 'Rail carts through the Forgotten World', which depicts snippets of travel on a Forgotten World rail venture from Tokirima to Okahukura.

PPPS on 28 November the online New Zealand Herald carried an article about Forgotten World Adventures' fruitless effort to find a new general manager, whose pay would be up to NZ$150,000 per year.

8.X Greenery in Hamilton

8.Y Another Big New Zealand Tree