More than 800 tonnes of cargo offloaded but expect to not have Steinlarger this festive season

What goes on at Sir Robert’s wharf when the cargo boat arrives is an orchestrated and trusting relationship between the team of Outside services and the local Matson Agent team of Frank and Sons with the boat workers to offload the goods needed on the island.

The cargo boat from New Zealand would normally travel to Rarotonga and then Aitutaki before coming to Niue. However, the last boat had to come into Niue first because of draft restrictions for the conditions of the harbour in Rarotonga. It was decided to offload the 869 tonnes of Niue’s cargo so the boat will be able to enter the harbour in the Cook Islands main island of Rarotonga.

According to Matsons local Agent Frank Mokoia, 69 containers were offloaded from this boat containing the islands Christmas stock.

Aside from the containers, there were 57 tonnes of loose cargo for the two large government projects, the Niue Recycling facility at Hikufenoga and the airport resealing project.

Of the 69 containers, 5 were transhipment from Samoa and Fiji, including two vehicles from Fiji and two from Samoa. There were 7 vehicles off this last boat, five freezer containers and nine fuel tanktainers.

Frank Mokoia explained that unfortunately for a couple of the local businesses, some of their cargo which was inside combined containers were unable to be offloaded.

These combined containers are shared between Niue and Cook Islands importers and because the boat was supposed to be offloaded first in the Cooks, they were not able to clear them. That cargo will not arrive in Niue until the next cargo voyage.

One of those containers contained the Steinlarger beer supply for the government’s Niue Liquor and Bond Store.

Yesterday the Bond store informed the public that there may be a shortage of Steinlarger on the island over the Christmas period.

There was a flurry of excitement as motorists tried to grab up tyres as the news that the stock of new tyres was also on their way to the Cook Islands.

Meanwhile, the stores are stocked up with all the supplies for the festive season, thanks to the team from Outside services led by Maka Poumale and Matsons team of Frank and Sons with all the boat workers who were able to offload nearly 900 tonnes of cargo in 2 and a half days.

The next cargo boat will return either at the end of December or early January, bearing in mind the cyclone season and weather conditions will also affect the shipping schedule.