S.S. 'Aotea' alongside the Railway wharf at Nelson NZ, 1909

In the background is the boulder bank on which is the lighthouse.

The Aotea was a British passenger refrigerated cargo steamship built by C. Shaw, Swan and Hunter, at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1895 for the Shaw, Savill & Albion Company.

Dimensions: Length, 430 feet 6 inches (131 meters); Breadth, 49-feet; Depth, 34 feet; Gross register tonnage, 5600 tons (the stated capacity was for 10,037 tons of general cargo); Propulsion: Single screw, triple-expansion 3-cylinder steam engines; Speed: 11 knots.

Operator/Owners: Shaw, Savill & Albion (1895–1912): Regular refrigerated cargo and passenger runs between the United Kingdom and New Zealand (including ports like Wellington, Napier, and Nelson). 
On 21 January 1911, she stranded at Moville Point near Table Bay, Cape Town, while carrying general cargo from Liverpool to Auckland. She was refloated and sold. Purchased and repaired, later renamed S.S. Naneric under Bank Line Ltd. (A. Weir & Co., Glasgow) in 1912. During World War I, she served as a commissioned Admiralty escort vessel (1917–1919). 
Later she was sold to Italian owners in 1925 (renamed Ballari) and broken up at Genoa in May 1925.

The smaller coastal ship in the postcard was likely operated by the local Anchor Shipping & Foundry Company or the Union Steam Ship Company.