Portsider-July-2017

SOUTH PORT’S PEOPLE

Retirement for Mark O’Connor

After 25 years working for South Port with 17 of those as the Chief Executive Officer, Mark O’Connor has decided now is the time to pass the baton onto the next leader of the organisation.

Mark signalled to the Board some time ago that 55 was the age he intended to take “a detour in the road” and exit the port sector.

“It has been a privilege to operate in the CEO role for the past 17 years and to work for South Port for almost 25 years. I have certainly appreciated the opportunity to lead a committed and talented group of individuals.”

“One of the key reasons I remained with the Company for such a long

period was the capability and style of the people that I worked with (at all levels). As a business, South Port provides variety in terms of different customers and projects to service freight.”

“I wish to thank the team in advance for the effort delivered and the tenacity they demonstrate on a consistent basis. I have also appreciated the manner in which the South Port Board has guided the Company and I pay special tribute to Rex (Chapman) in his role as Chair.”

The Board has commenced the process of seeking a replacement CEO. Mark leaves the Company early November.

Where’s Wally (Helen)?

If you look closely you can see her – well its not quite that bad, however South Port Human Resources Advisor, Helen Young does look small compared to her Southland Sharks basketball colleagues.

Outside of work, Helen has been on the Board of the Sharks basketball team since their inception and involvement in the National Basketball League in 2010. Her boardroom role is not just restricted to sitting around

Helen Young ‘dwarfed’ by the 2017 Southland Sharks basketball squad.

the table, she is tasked with looking after the corporate hospitality packages and on game day, ensures the corporate sponsors get ‘bang for their buck’ – although (in Helen’s words) she likes to play her role down and acts as the game night “gopher!”.

During the past couple of seasons, South Port has provided the Sharks with some minor support towards their campaign. The sponsorship entitles the Company to two double passes per game, with all South Port staff being given the opportunity to win the tickets through weekly draws.

Ten Years and Counting

South Port Finance Manager, Lara Stevens triggered a personal milestone in March this year. She celebrated 10 years working at the Port.

When asked by the Portsider, Lara vividly remembers the first day at work when a few people around the Port commented to her that “the Accountant only lasts three years and moves on”. That statement dawned on Lara and her thoughts were, why have I left a job that I enjoyed for one that will only last a few years? But as she looks back, the past ten years have “snuck by pretty quickly” and she’s enjoying the corporate environment and the port industry.

Previously she worked seven years at Chartered Accounting firm BDO in Invercargill, first as a Trainee Accountant while working full time and studying part time. She then worked during university holidays and returned after completing her studies as a Senior Accountant looking after some of the larger clients.

Fortunately for Lara an opportunity became available in her home town of Bluff as the South Port Finance Manager and she has never looked back. “I appreciate the opportunity that Mark (O’Connor) gave me at quite a young age when I joined the team, he took a punt and I would like to think it paid off. I respect my fellow colleagues in the management team and we work really well together; plus my staff are great! Any job would be made more difficult if you did not have a good team of people around you”.

“The (Finance Manager) role is rather diverse so one day is always different to the next and I am not just a ‘number cruncher’. It not only requires a sound knowledge of the accounting profession but also covers many other aspects of the commercial sector. I also enjoy the discipline associated with being a NZX Listed Company and appreciate my interaction with the South Port Board as it is a good way to expand on my governance knowledge and learn how to focus at a more strategic level”.

Recently Lara was appointed to the Board of Ngāi Tahu Property Ltd as an Associate Director as part of the iwi’s Manawa Nui programme. She views this as a fantastic opportunity to grow her governance skills and also to add value to Ngāi Tahu during her two year posting. Her community involvement is not new, a couple of years ago she was part of the Coastguard Bluff Fundraising Committee that successfully raised over $1.3M to fund the build of a new fit-for-purpose rescue boat. Lara said “It is fair to say I am pretty passionate about our small town!”

Outside of work Lara and her husband (Bob Bowen) are heavily involved in the Te Ara o Kiwa Sea Scouts in Bluff. They are both scout leaders which can mean up to three days a week on the water during summer. She is involved in her local marae and also enjoys weaving kākahu (feather cloaks), gardening, travelling and getting away in April/May for her other keen pastime – Muttonbirding.

into a newly formed Accounts Payable role.

Linda was most recently employed at Phoenix Services where her responsibilities included reception, financial administration and health & safety. Prior to this she had worked in a diverse range of industries including administration roles within the real estate, sawmilling, retail, finance and insurance industries.

She lives in Invercargill with her husband Dion and they have two daughters, with the youngest attending James Hargest College and the eldest in her first year at Otago University.

In her spare time she has a passion for gardening and enjoys design. She also enjoys distance running, having competed in 5km and 10km events, with her ultimate goal being to complete a half or full marathon.

“The welcome I have received has been overwhelming and I am looking forward to my future with the South Port team” said Linda.

FOCUS ON CRUISE SHIPS IN BLUFF

Bluff’s largest visitor departs –Artania sails for Fiordland.

Cruise ships sailing through Fiordland (Southland’s premier scenic attraction) under the guidance of South Port Pilots have been an annual feature of our centre pages for many years now.

They normally appear under the style ‘BLUFF FOCUS on CRUISE SHIPS’, but this is the first time we have devoted these pages to cruise ships visiting Bluff, hence the slight reworking of the heading. Not that cruise ships are strangers here.

When biologist Rodney Russ established Heritage Expeditions in 1985, to among other things, operate cruises to New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic Islands and Antarctica itself, he saw Bluff as the logical gateway to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. Operators of other “adventure” type cruise ships agreed with him and most Antarctic cruises ex-New Zealand have departed from and/or returned to Bluff.

Many of the ships involved have become regular visitors over many years including Heritage Expeditions’ pioneering Akademik Shokalskiy and the Frontier Spirit that first called in Bluff as a brand new ship in 1991 and features here under her current name of Bremen

What has been different in the cruise season just finished

is the number of larger cruise ships that have called, including the Artania, at 44,588 gross tons, the largest ship ever to enter the Port. Her visit follows that of fleetmate Amadea three years ago (see back page). Consistently rated one of the world’s most luxurious cruise ships is the Europa of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, as is the Bremen, and both were visitors to Bluff during this cruise season. France has a reputation for offering luxury at sea and Compagnie du Ponant upholds that tradition with L’Austral and her sisters.

As with most ship types visiting Bluff, passenger ships have got larger as the years have gone by. In the 1930’s the largest passenger ship to call was the New Zealand Shipping Company’s passenger-cargo liner Rangitata of 16,737 gross tons, which first visited Bluff on 2 June 1930. She remained the largest until 10 January 1953 when the same company’s Ruahine of 17,851 gross tons berthed and it was not until 3 March 1995 with the arrival of the Fyodor Dostoyevskiy, 20,606 gross tons, that a larger passenger ship came here.

Since then the Amadea in February 2014 and now the Artania on 3 March this year have taken the title.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Courtney and Shane entering the birdcage, all smiles after finishing third.

Change of Profession

South Port Marketing Analyst, Courtney Forde, recently got the opportunity as part of the Company’s race day sponsorship at Ascot Park to hop into the sulky with experienced reinsman Shane Walkinshaw.

Parked three back along the rails (in a field of three) Courtney thought she was on the winner for a fleeting moment with 400 metres to go, but those dreams were dashed when entering the home straight for the final time.

The pressure was applied and the horse galloped and went up in the air extinguishing any chances, finishing a distance 30 lengths last.

Ring The Bell

Due to the pending sale of the tug Monowai in July, her bell is being removed and donated to the Bluff Museum to hang alongside the bells of the Hauroko of 1968 and the Southland Harbour Board’s’ first tug, the Awarua, which was actually built for its predecessor, the Bluff Harbour Board The Monowai was built for the Southland Harbour Board in 1973 and has served both the Harbour Board and South Port well over the years.

The tug’s name is traditionally engraved or cast onto the surface of the bell, often also with the year the tug was launched. Occasionally (especially on more modern

tugs) the bell will also carry the name of the shipyard that built the tug. If a tug’s name is changed, maritime tradition is that the original bell carrying the original name will remain with the vessel. A tug’s bell is a prized possession when a ship is broken up and often provides the only positive means of identification in the case of a shipwreck. South Port’s tradition is to keep the bell that came with the tug and replace this bell with a new one for the next owner, upon completion of the sale.

AROUND THE PORT

North Rail Paving

During the summer months, Port users will notice the upgrade of the north rail log storage area from its current dunite surface to paved hard stand. Benefits of the project will include improved volume utilisation of the area, a cleaner storage facility and the recycling of wood byproduct waste.

Work is due to begin on the $2.2M project in November/December and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

Show Us Some Muscle!

With a heading like that, you would expect to see Port workers flexing their muscles – not this time, that was the cranes’ job.

During May, the operations team were challenged with a new task. Instead of handling 25 tonne containers with the mobile harbour crane, a 71 tonne barge (Utah II) provided some variety to the work week. Brett McIntyre, Tyson Irwin and Chris Ryan were tasked with the responsibility of lifting her safely out of the water. Once out of Bluff Harbour, the barge was transported via road to Central Otago to be repositioned in Lake Wakatipu.

In future she will be used to transport goods to and from her new home, ‘Halfway Bay Station’, a 17,000 ha. sheep and beef farm that can only be accessed by boat.

Whilst the 71 tonne barge was larger than a traditional single lift, it was not the heaviest. This record is held by a Nacelle discharge (wind turbine generator) weighing in excess of 80 tonnes.

Frozen Assets

Not just frozen but chilled, cooled or temperature controlled within tight limits, the shippers perishable assets can be cared for as required aboard the Seatrade Blue, the first fully refrigerated cellular container ship to visit Bluff.

Coming to Bluff for a one-off call directly from her Chinese builders, she is the fourth of Seatrade’s new ‘Colour’ class to enter service, the others being Seatrade Red, Seatrade White and Seatrade Orange.

She and her sisters are destined for the company’s Meridian Service linking New Zealand with Peru, United States East Coast and Europe.

PHOENIX REISEN

Johannes Zurnieden was just 23 years old when he opened a travel agency he named Phoenix Reisen in the German city of Bonn in 1973. The company’s name translates as Phoenix Travel and initially the travel offered was fairly close to home with flights to holiday destinations such as Prague, Budapest and Istanbul, later spreading its wings to Majorca, the Canary Islands and America. Phoenix Reisen had risen.

In 1988 the company expanded its holiday horizons seawards when it entered the cruising world by chartering the Soviet cruise ship Maksim Gorkiy In a sense, the Maksim Gorkiy was coming home as she had been built in Germany for German owners as the Hamburg. Having been designed for trans-Atlantic service, she was a strongly built ship with accommodation for 652 passengers. Obviously Phoenix Reisen saw a long-term future for itself at sea as they chartered her for twenty years. This confidence was not misplaced as the Maksim Gorkiy proved so popular with the company’s mainly German clientele, that a second cruise ship was chartered in 1993. Another former trans-Atlantic liner, the Albatros, was selected and she became the first ship to carry Phoenix Reisen’s colours of turquoise funnel with a white albatross over a yellow sun and the hull adorned with a turquoise band. She had been built as the Sylvania for Britain’s premier transAtlantic liner company, the fabled Cunard Line, and later underwent a major reconstruction from which she emerged as a modern cruise ship with accommodation for 925 passengers. With two large cruise ships at its disposal, Phoenix Reisen became a global player offering an annual aroundthe-world cruise departing during the northern winter for warmer climes in the south seas. Both ships visited

The Albatros at Stewart Island showing off her classic cruise ship profile.

New Zealand during these circumnavigations, but unfortunately age was overtaking the Albatros and after a succession of mechanical problems her charter was terminated in December 2003. The Maksim Gorkiy was not alone for long however, as in 2004 she was joined by a new Albatros Designed specifically for cruising this Albatros was built as the Royal Viking Sea, one of a trio that were among the most luxurious cruise ships afloat.

When not engaged on the annual around-the-world voyage, the two ships cruised European, Scandinavian and Mediterranean waters. To complement these cruises, a smaller ‘Expedition’ type cruise ship was chartered in 2005 from V Ships. Renamed Alexander von Humboldt she stayed with Phoenix until 2007 when she was replaced by a similar ship, also renamed Alexander von Humboldt, until 2008. Cruising with Phoenix Reisen is not confined to seagoing ships, as the company also markets a fleet of river cruise ships operating in Europe, particularly along the Rhine, some of which are in company colours.

In 2008 the twenty year charter of the pioneering Maksim Gorkiy concluded. Being a steamship, she was expensive to operate and at the end of her charter was sold to shipbreakers. Anticipating her departure, Phoenix had already chartered the former Japanese cruise ship Asuka, which now sails in Phoenix colours as the Amadea.

On 20 February 2014 the Amadea became the first Phoenix Reisen ship to visit Bluff, her 29,008 gross tonnes making her the largest passenger ship to have berthed in Bluff and also contributed to a new tonnage record for ships in Port. The next Phoenix Reisen ship to call was not just the largest passenger ship to berth in Bluff, but in terms of gross tonnage, the biggest ship of any kind. She was the 44,588 tonne Artania, which was taken on charter in 2011. Phoenix Reisen owns no ships itself, all of them being chartered and managed for the company by V Ships, the current fleet comprising the Albatros, Amadea and Artania, supplemented by seasonal charters of the smaller German ship Deutschland

We look forward to further visits by the Phoenix Reisen fleet to the Port of Bluff.