Cook Strait ferry woes deepen as new Bluebridge ferry has engine problems

The Connemara arrived in Wellington late last month.

A new ferry which joined the Bluebridge ferry fleet just a couple of weeks ago has become the third Cook Strait ferry in three weeks to encounter trouble between the islands.

The Connemara, which arrived in Wellington late last month, got into trouble on the way to Picton on Friday. It returned and docked in Wellington with assistance on Saturday.

In a statement on their website, Bluebridge said Connemara had experienced an issue with an engine and is undergoing repairs in Wellington.

“We are still awaiting final confirmation of when the parts necessary to fix the issue will arrive in New Zealand but we expect this to be later today or tomorrow. This will allow our engineers to finalise the repair work and confirm when Connemara will resume sailing.”

Sailings are cancelled at least until the end of Tuesday.

“We understand this is very disruptive to our customers’ travel plans and we are sorry. Unfortunately, we have almost no available space on other sailings over the coming weeks and the only option we will be able to provide to affected passengers is a full refund of the ticket.

“Thank you for your understanding and please respect our staff who are doing the very best they can to assist in this difficult situation.”

Ange O’Keefe was due to catch the ferry over with her family on one of the cancelled sailings but was lucky to be squeezed onto another trip.

“Somehow they crammed us on,” she said.

“Their staff deserves some sort of morning tea shout. Lots of people were being so rude to them, forgetting they didn’t break the boat on purpose,” she said.

“My only feedback to them would be to have some options for people, like accommodation vouchers for X amount of money. Money’s tough at the moment for most families and finding accommodation that’s budget-friendly is really hard. We would have been sleeping in our car with a kid in it if we didn’t get out today.”

She said there were about 80 people on waitlists, “so it’s ‘turn up every crossing, hope your name gets called out and just keep doing that’.”

“Otherwise, next car booking is mid-March.”

To make matters worse, Bluebridge is already down one ferry as the Strait Feronia was sent to Sydney last week for its scheduled dry dock. The Feronia is due back at the end of March, meaning sailings until then are even more restricted.

Bluebridge isn’t the only company suffering ferry woes at the moment, with Interislander experiencing two ferry breakdowns since late January.

In the late afternoon of January 28, KiwiRail advised Maritime New Zealand the Kaitaki had reported engine problems.

Ten minutes later the ship issued a mayday call with 864 people on board. All four engines had shut down in the middle of a roaring southerly in the Cook Strait.

KiwiRail has since revealed this was caused by a leak in the engine cooling system, which resulted in a loss of pressure.

They announced today the Kaitaki will remain a freight-only service until at least Friday.

“We are moving a lot of freight bookings from the Aratere and Kaiarahi to Kaitaki and the Valentine to free up more space for passengers and their vehicles,” they said on their website.

“We have bookings for around 5000 people and 1500 cars this week that are affected by the Kaitaki cancellations that we are trying to reschedule so please be patient with our teams while they work through these.

“Our focus is getting customers with existing bookings across Cook Strait. If you are wanting to make a new booking it is unlikely that there is space available.”

Interislander’s Aratere ferry also broke down a week ago in the Cook Strait as wild weather from Cyclone Gabrielle approached.

Power was restored and the ferry was able to resume its trip to Picton.

Bluebridge has been contacted for comment on the latest incident.

Spokeswoman Wendy Pannett had nothing to add on top of Bluebridge’s statement, and noted they had no flexibility for drydock dates for the Strait Feronia.