New harbourmaster onboard

‘‘There’s a perception that all you do is sit on the beach, but you don’t. It’s a lot of work.

‘‘There are a lot of jobs to do on a cruise ship, so it’s definitely an interesting sector to be part of, but you can build some great experiences and memories.’’

The harbourmaster’s role looks after maritime safety in areas which fall under the Marlborough District Council. Based in Picton, the area includes all of the Marlborough Sounds, extending beyond d’Urville Island, and down to Willawa Point, north of Ke¯kerengu¯.

Luckily, working on cruise ships taught him a lot – particularly when it came to working with people.

‘‘It’s taught me a huge amount of skills that I hope to transfer in industry work, best practices in safety and safety management and in working with people,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s very hard to work on a cruise ship if you don’t like people, or you’re really bad at communicating.’’

Oliver said he was still learning a lot of the challenges to be expected in the role.

‘‘The challenges are the huge growth of the region, development with the port, the huge boating recreation sector,’’ he said.

‘‘That’s quite a broad brush answer. But enhancing maritime navigation safety operations in the region, building on those really strong blocks that have been put in place from Luke [Grogan].’’

He said the return of cruise ships and the introduction of larger ferries was ‘‘definitely on the radar’’.

‘‘It’s very much a part of the process at the moment, working through how all this is going to fit together. Balancing the needs of the community, commercial operators, and other key stakeholders.

‘‘How that’s going to look at the moment, I don’t know, but there are processes in place, and things being worked on.

‘‘It’s going to be interesting. But a key part of my role is to be part of that conversation.’’