A contest for water space in Auckland's harbour is building after approximately 100 ferry trips were either cancelled or delayed last month to make way for passing cruise ships.

The cruise ships required access to dock at Princess Wharf and it's expected there will be more ships in the coming weeks needing to use the space, which has caused concern for work commuters.

North Shore's ward councillor, Chris Darby, has been heavily involved over the years in the city's ferry and cruise ship scene and he told Summer Breakfast this morning the contest was happening within the downtown ferry basin.

It involved both Princess Wharf East and Queens Wharf and he said the issue needed to be resolved to prevent the city from "becoming like Barcelona" and shutting off cruise ships altogether.

"Our priority for that area is ferry commuter travel, but we've also got a growing demand to accommodate cruise ships. We've got a problem there and we've got to fix it - we've got to fix it fast," said Darby.

Back in 2022, it was clear to Darby and Auckland Council that the cruise ship business was going to come roaring back stronger post-Covid. Darby worked with Ports of Auckland and Auckland Transport, particularly the harbourmaster at the time, to close down windows that were liberal to favouring cruise ships.

Currently, the downtown ferry basin has a berthing exclusion window for all commuter ferries, meaning berthing cannot happen between 6.30am and 9.05am on weekday mornings, or between 4.30pm and 6.05pm on those evenings.

"That's the current rule, but I'm now proposing that be extended and extra in the morning and an extra hour and a half in the afternoon," said Darby.

"So there's some early work happening in that area, the Ports of Auckland have been very proactive, they're the main conduits for these cruise companies and the agents, and they're in discussions now."

Darby said he was "very confident" there would be a medium-term solution found but it would be much harder to find an immediate solution given cruise companies have such significant lead-in times.

Alternatives are being explored for other places for the ferries to dock.

According to Darby, the overall plan is to get out of Princess Wharf East entirely - stressing it was a critical requirement as it was part of the council's central wharf strategy and to reduce its footprint.

"Queens Wharf East will be retained as a cruise terminal, but in the new year you'll hear more of the port company looking at developing Bledisloe North Wharf, or what we call Quantum Class Cruise and other classes of cruise," he said.

Bledisloe North Wharf is expected to accommodate the really large ships arriving in Auckland that transport up to 5000 people, but it will require working with the long lead-in times that ferry companies work under.

"We've gotta get our investment strategy right," said Darby.

"This is a significant investment to accommodate the cruises and my view is [the cruise companies] should be paying the tab, not the ratepayers of Auckland or the taxpayers of New Zealand. There's a whole new discussion we need to have."