A new crane.
This’ll interest some but not others! For me it was fascinating. A few weeks ago the local paper announced that a new crane was going to be shipped into Port Chalmers container depot. The statistics in themselves were amazing. At a cost of $11million NZ, it took 30 days to sail from Shanghai, to Dunedin, where it waited for 2 days outside the heads before being able to come in and dock. During this time the Ministry of Agriculture would’ve begun the lengthy task of clearing the cargo prior to landing. The crane weighs in excess of 1,200 tonnes and is a little over 65m high. It came with two similar cranes that will be offloaded in Chile, and two smaller ones whose destination is unknown.
I wanted to see the ship whilst it was at anchor in the sounds, so we drove out to a local beach, called Waitati, and walked along the sand. Heath of course came, too, and soon found a stick to play with! The tide had just turned and was advancing over the sand bar, so when he snapped his stick in two and decided to bury half of it, he was more than a little puzzled that, once he stopped digging and turned his attention to the victim of his mining, the hole vanished. He gave up in the end, leaving both pieces of the stick to the incoming tide!
The view was limited, with the ship, the Zhenhua 5, being anchored almost two nautical miles from the shore. I used full zoom and got a slightly grainy image. The other is very indistinct.
So today, once the ship had docked, despite being full of head cold (I DO hate summer colds and how they make people feel!) a trip to Port Chalmers was a “must”! The cranes could be seen above the dip in the hills, long before we reached the port. Knowing that the best views are up on the hills, we drove up to a place we’d used before and took some pictures of the enormous ship and it’s incredible cargo. The crane destined for Port Otago is the one with the grey framework and cabin.
We were able, too, to get fairly close at the Port gates, but the best views were taken from the other side of the dock, where we were allowed to walk in and view the spectacle close up.
I couldn’t resist the shots of the crane cabin and the counterbalances. To remove the crane from the ship takes just an hour, but only after a massive preparation, involving rail track and winches. They were laying the track, also carried on the ship, as we watched today – prior to the operation to unload it all being well, tomorrow. The ship is due to return to sea and continue its voyage on March 1st.
And one of our dear little tug boats! I do admire them, and their captains, for the work they do, guiding such huge visiting vessels in through narrow and treacherous shipping channels, to dock safely!
And this shot almost puts it in perspective!
