John MacDonald: I get why Lyttelton residents aren't feeling so cruisy

I remember watching the TV news late last year and seeing a story about the organisers of the Sail GP yacht racing event having a meeting with residents in Lyttelton to talk about planning for the big event, which is now just a few weeks away.

Sail GP, of course, being the international yacht racing event which Sir Russell Coutts is involved with - it’s one of these sporting events that travels around the world, a bit like the Formula 1.

And on March 18 and 19, the boats and crews will be in town racing on Lyttelton Harbour.

And I remember seeing this TV news story and there was a resident on the telly saying he wanted to know how he was going to be able to park his car with all the people flooding into town for the two-day event.

And I remember thinking “oh here we go, we finally manage to get an international sporting event to Canterbury and the locals are going to start banging on about car parking”.

Well, luckily for that chap and others living in Lyttelton, it’s all been sorted and - unless you’re a resident - it’s pretty much going to be impossible to drive into Lyttelton during the two days the Sail GP racing is happening next month.

So when I heard this morning about some Lyttelton residents getting all upset on it about the disruption cruise ship visits are causing for them, it would have been very easy for me to react the same way I did when I saw the guy going on about the impact Sail GP was going to have on his ability to park his car.

The difference, though, is that the Sail GP “disruption” - if you want to call it that - is just for two days. Cruise ship visits, though, they’re happening all summer. Already, about a hundred visits are planned for Lyttelton next summer.

Local community board member Reuben Davidson says some Lyttelton residents are feeling overwhelmed by all the visitors.

It’s being reported today that some feel their sleepy little town is being over-run by thousands of visitors - or "floaters", as they call them; with one resident saying that she has marked the last day of the cruise season on her calendar as a “celebration day”.

And the gist of what some people in Lyttelton are saying, is that the huge number of people turning up on these cruise ships is changing the nature of the place they call home.

They’re saying that if they want to catch a bus to town, they have to leave home earlier than usual because the public transport is being overrun.

That’s because the buses put on for the cruise ship passengers to get into Christchurch costs $35 a head. Nevertheless, as you would expect, the cruisers pretty quickly realise that it’s much cheaper to take the public transport, which costs $2.10. Which is meaning full buses and local people struggling to get a bus when they want it.

And I can well understand their frustration. As one resident is saying today: "A sleepy little town feels overrun and overwhelmed - especially with the very large ships”.

If you’ve driven from town through the Lyttelton Tunnel recently, you will have got towards the Lyttelton end some days and - instead of light - all you can see at the end is cruise ship.

It can be quite breathtaking after all the COVID years and the lack of visitors and their spending power.

Which is why businesses - retail, hospitality - love the cruise ships. Especially retail and hospitality on the other side of the hill in Christchurch.

But if you actually live in Lyttelton, I reckon that excitement and enthusiasm would wane pretty quickly.

Which is why I’m not going to join the likely masses and say that Lyttelton people need to pull their heads in. I’m not going to say they need to suck it up. I’m not going to say they have to take one for the Christchurch and Canterbury teams.

I’m sure there will be ship-loads of people thinking that Lyttelton people complaining about the cruise ships don’t know what side their bre