1954. In 1960 the port's first tug, the Mount Maunganui was commissioned. In 1967, the port handled its first shipping container. In 1972 the Port Caroline, then the world's largest conventional refrigerated cargo liner, visited the port for the first time. The opening of the Kaimai rail tunnel by Sir Rob Muldoon in 1978 substantially reduced travelling times between the port and the rest of New Zealand. In 1988, as a consequence of Government port reform, the Bay of Plenty Harbour Board established Port of Tauranga Limited as its operating vehicle. In 1989, the Harbour Board was disestablished and ownership of shares in the port passed to The Bay of Plenty and Waikato Regional Councils. The Company is now public, with a diverse shareholding. The port continued to develop and modernize during the 1990s and 2000s. A significant development in 1999 was the establishment of New Zealand's first fully integrated inland port service, MetroPort Auckland. In 2000, the port entered a 50:50 joint-venture with Northland Port Corporation (NZ) Limited to develop and operate a deepwater port at Marsden Point near Whangarei. The port was a joint winner of the 2004 Australasian Port of the Year Award run by Lloyd's List Daily Commercial News, the first time a New Zealand port had won a Lloyd's List award. With the trend to larger cargo vessels making fewer port calls, Tauranga has increasingly become the only New Zealand, or only North Island, port serviced by international shipping lines, at the expense of ports in Auckland, Wellington, Lyttleton (Christchurch) and elsewhere. Lines include Maersk/Hamburg Sud, CMA CGM, ANL and Swires. The port is now New Zealand's largest container terminal. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, it also hosted increasing numbers of cruise ships. Facilities The port has a total of 15 berths, of which 12 are located on the Mount Maunganui side of the harbour (general cargo such as wood, coal handling facilities, bulk liquids), while another 3 are located at the Tauranga Container Terminal at Sulphur Point on the Tauranga side. Port of Tauranga owns 190 hectares of land on both sides of Tauranga Harbour, with about 40 hectares still available for development. The port has nine Liebherr container cranes and 53 straddle carriers servicing its container terminal at Sulphur Point, on the western side of the harbour. First opened in 1992, this facility features 770m of wharf and 38 hectares of paved container