Hundreds queue for Waiheke ferries

Hundreds of people are queuing for ferries to Waiheke Island today - but no extra ferries are being laid on.

Queues stretched from Auckland's ferry terminal right around the Ferry Basin to the Hilton Hotel at about 11am.

Passenger Simon Brown said he and his group tried to catch a 9am Waiheke ferry from Devonport, but it was full.

"So we and 150 others got the ferry to Auckland to try and get the 10am ferry from Auckland to Waiheke," he said. "It was full too."

Fullers marketing and communications manager Steph Bell said long queues were "quite normal over a long weekend in summer" and no extra services were planned.

"The services are running to our normal Sunday timetable," she said.

"Our timetable to Waiheke operates every 30 minutes. The services operate on a walk-up basis so once the vessel is full it departs, but as the timetable operates every 30 minutes there is always a ferry not far away."

People in the queue who spoke to the Herald were good-natured about the wait and there was no apparent impatience.