One morning I received a Facebook message "can you please tell me if a cruise ship has berthed this morning, have friends on it from Oz, many thanks".

I look up on Google and reply with; "Hi the Arcadia was due to berth at 5.43 am today. It's fine weather so it probably did". "Okay thanks, will keep trying their cell phone."

After a 7am coffee at Luca, I go check out the ship.

Pilot Bay is breathtakingly beautiful. There's really no words in English to describe it. I like the Croatian word "izuzetan" which means "exceptional" so I'll go with that. Pilot Bay is izuzetan.

An official looking guy in a yellow vest called Barry Lusher watches me pull into the coned area.

"You can't actually park there?" He smiles. "Hi I thought I'd just get a quick photo of the boat? Send it to someone who is looking for a friend?" "Oh yeah that's fine." I hop out. Take a few photos. Barry is one of the official ambassadors for our city. However he calls himself a carpark warden.

It's still fairly quiet with some tour operators assembled waiting for passengers to come through the gates.

The 'Pink Hat Lady”.

Barry tells me there's usually about 30 - 40 vans and buses waiting depending on the size of the ship.

'The vans all meet first at Blake Park and then go into a draw to see who will be parked closest to the ship”, he states. 'Then they drive on down here.”

Those who make it into the draw get to park close. The others have to park in the next street. There's a new draw for each ship.

Barry and I chat for a while in between him directing people. He's brilliant. He considers his primary role as meeting and greeting passengers and ensuring they're in the right place. He's been doing this for 6 or 7 years and arrives at 6.30am with the rest of the ambassadors rostered on to help. "I like the interactions with passengers," he says. "The satisfaction of helping them. Showing them the most beautiful place in New Zealand." He strides off after a lost looking couple.

"Are you ok? Can I help you?" he enquires with a friendly smile. They turn, looking relieved.

"We're just wondering where to go,” they explain. 'This is only our second time ashore. We've had a lot of sea days. Our tour operator isn't here yet." "They run to a schedule and should be here soon,” he replies with his customary smile.

It's now 8.30am. They chat for a bit and he answers their questions.

I get a Facebook message in from a Kim Breen "Has the Arcadia arrived yet? Thanks :D" "Yes", I reply, and send her a photo of the ship.

Kim responds with "Woooo will see my uncle from Liverpool today first time in 7 years thank you.”

Barry returns and tells me how there's usually hundreds of cruise ship passengers milling around by this time, but today is a luxury 150-day around-the-world cruise that came from French Polynesia and has been at sea for 5 days. He points out that the main problem for passengers disembarking is the name of the road behind us - "The Mall" which has a large road sign and arrow pointing towards the Mount.

"Most people think that's a sign pointing to a shopping mall,” he states. 'They can get quite lost.”

The Mall is the name of the road that runs along Pilot Bay from Salisbury Wharf to Adams Ave.

The confusing ‘The Mall' sign.

He heads off to guide the Hop On Hop Off bus in to its allocated park.

One of the operators chats with me. I ask them where they take the passengers.

'Well some of them stay on board the ship. About 40% of them go on buses that park inside by the ship. To Hobbiton, Waitomo, Rotorua or somewhere like that.”

'Anyone go to Tauranga?” I ask.

'We errr how can I put it without being rude. They're usually looking for views which they can get here at the Mount. Unless they want the historic stuff or the art gallery, well, there's nothing much over there is there, truly. But they don't know about the Mount.”

'They don't know about the Mount?” I ask, puzzled.

'The cruise ships pretty much promote Rotorua. Mount Maunganui doesn't get mentioned in any of their paperwork. Instead it's Tauranga,” he says. 'The passengers says ‘Mount Maunganui – oh I didn't realise there was a town here'.”

In order to stop touting, those tour operators that are not meeting specific people are required to stay within a metre of their van.

Twenty Japanese come up to me.

"Excuse me, which way is to the city?” they ask.

I'm suddenly thrust into the role of guide and wonder whether they mean Tauranga City or the Mount Maunganui shops. I quickly point out the two locations from which to catch the buses going over the harbour bridge to Tauranga. From their faces I can tell they don't want that.

"Or there's shops just around the corner over there,” I point in the other direction. 'It's our Mount Maunganui township."

Their faces light up with smiles and they head off happily chatting. I guess after five days on board they just want to go for a walk on dry land.

The Hop On Hop Off bus guide with a giant pink hat comes towards me with a grin. "It's you!" I exclaim.

"You're the pink hat lady today!" He had jogged past me the night before. Usually there's a woman wearing the pink hat.

"Yep! My son's not doing it today so it's me."

Like Gandalf with his staff, he stands, feet apart holding the sign firmly. Passengers for the bus are told to look for the lady in the bright pink hat. I forget to tell him Sonny Bill Williams was also out heading for a swim the previous night.

Barry comes back. He's beaming.

'Passengers are frequently referring to this as the best reception, and the best information they have when they need it anywhere in New Zealand.”

I get home and receive a new Facebook message from the person with friends from Oz - "unable to make phone contact, is there any other way I can please." I look up on Google, find the "meeting passengers" link and phone number and email that through.

Later in the day, a message and photo come in from Kim Breen.

'I was asking you if the ship had arrived because my Uncle and Aunty from Liverpool were on it and I hadn't seen him for 7 years,” she wrote.

'We met them in Tauranga, had a pub meal and then we headed over to Omokoroa so they could see where we lived before heading back and dropping them off in time to meet their bus in Tauranga. It was a very special day for me. He had also never met my daughter Callie either, so pretty cool day.”

Yes, very cool day, another izuzetan day in the Bay.