Interislander ferry repairs cause travel woes for passengers

Thursday, 2 February 2023

While Interislander ferry Kaitaki is out of action, would-be passengers have had their travel plans turned upside down

Passengers due to travel on Interislander’s berthed Kaitaki ferry have been left stranded, with no alternative but to completely rebook or scrap their travel plans.

Viv Reid was due to leave Wellington on Thursday to tour the South Island in a campervan with her partner.

But 24 hours before her departure, Interislander told her that the 8:30pm sailing on Kaitaki wasn’t going ahead.

“The communication has been atrocious.

“I rang yesterday morning and was assured we’d be booked to sail tonight but it was moved to 8pm. Then 7:30pm last night it was cancelled. No suggestion for alternatives. Just cancelled.”

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Passengers on both sides of the Cook Strait have been stranded, with some forced to leave their vehicles on the wrong side of the strait and fly home.

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Kaitaki experienced a complete power failure on Saturday when its cooling system sprung a leak.

Reid said social media was awash with travellers in much worse situations than hers, some of whom have had to abandon their cars and fly home after being stranded on the wrong island.

“We were all packed and ready to go but we were lucky.

A tug shadowed the stricken Kaitaki as it made its way back to port after coming perilously close to Red Rocks near Owhiro Bay.

“Even though our campervan was booked and we’d taken our annual leave, our employers were really flexible and allowed us to withdraw our leave.

“We’re now considering rebooking in March - this time with Bluebridge.”

Reid said the lack of forward planning was what really stung.

Interislander’s Kaitaki ferry had a rough start to 2023, with engineering faults putting it out of commission. (Video first published March 2023)

“It would’ve been nice to be offered alternative arrangements rather than a text message and email saying it’d be simply cancelled and refunded.

Ivor Evans from Golden Bay was stuck on the other side after weeks of planning a special motorcycle racing trip for himself and three fellow enthusiasts at Pukekohe Park raceway near Auckland.

The night that the trailer and car were packed up, they received the message that their 1:15pm sailing on Kaitaki was off.

“It was a text message from the agent we booked from saying it was off. No direct communication at all, no alternative offered.

The next day, he said a fellow enthusiast arrived in Picton around 10am and asked for any available booking from the Interislander commercial vehicle ticket office. He was allegedly told that if two trucks didn’t arrive for the next sailing, he could board.

Those two trucks didn’t arrive and his friend boarded the ferry.

Evans said if they’d organised places on standby for the other sailings he would’ve waited in Picton for one.

“I‘m frustrated by the way it was all handled. It felt like we were victims of total disorganisation and was certainly below what we would expect of good customer service.”

Evans’ trip to Pukekohe Park was for the last classic motorcycle racing series there before the track is demolished in April. He’d been looking forward to going to the track since he was young.

“I grew up watching racing and so to miss this after we’d planned it all out really hurts.”

On Thursday Interislander announced that Kaitaki is set to return to the Cook Strait from Friday, sailing as a freight-only service from 8.45am on Friday.

“The plan is to return Kaitaki into service in a staged way,” said Interislander executive general manager Walter Rushbrook.

“The ship will return initially as a freight-only service. After further performance and assurance checks, we will resume taking passengers.”