Princes Wharf, Auckland

HMS Hood, the then-largest battlecruiser of the Royal Navy, berthed at the wharf for the commissioning, showing the strategic importance the British Empire attributed to the naval facilities of its colonies.

[3] After World War II, the wharf, and Auckland itself, gained in importance both as starting point and destination for an increasing number of ocean liners (especially in the early post-war years when long-distance air travel was not as established yet), and later on, cruise ships including the Rangitane and Ruahine.

[4] The wharf now contains the renovated Overseas Passenger Terminal (berthing of cruise ships) of Ports of Auckland,[5] a Hilton hotel, various restaurants as well as apartments, office space and a multi-story parking building.

The wharf developers and the Hilton hotel have repeatedly, and against legal orders, limited public access to this area (for example to use it for private functions), while officially claiming a need to act against vandalism and use by drug dealers.

[8] In the discussion about opening up more of the waterfront, the wharf has thus been cited as a negative example, touted by developers as providing more public access to the harbour, but now being all but privatised, as well as inadequate for the increasing demands of the cruise ship industry.