Scale: 1:200. When the Remuera was delivered from the Walker shipyard of Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Ltd. to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), it was the world’s largest refrigerated container ship. It was also originally intended to be the first of four large container ships operating between Australasia and the United Kingdom. This order was in fact placed with Swan Hunter by P&O but, due to the European Economic Community’s new policies regarding the trade of refrigerated produce, the remaining three ships were cancelled.

Remuera could carry 1703 20-foot containers, of which 1151 were refrigerated, or ‘reefers’. Fully laden, it was just over 42,000 GRT (gross registered tons). It was also the fastest container ship in the world with its four steam turbines and twin screws giving a service speed of 23 knots. Although it was owned by P&O, it carried the colours of the New Zealand Shipping Co., a subsidiary company.

In 1977 the ship’s name was changed to Remuera Bay as depicted here in the model. It later changed its name again to Berlin Express and, in this guise, its final scheduled run to Auckland was completed on 17 March 2002. It actually made one further voyage to Hamburg under the name Press, prior to being scrapped.