Interislander freight ferry to set sail for Greece after sale

The Interislander Cook Strait ferries, from left, Valentine, Aratere and Kaiarahi, docked in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Interislander is bidding farewell to one of its ships this week as it sails away to Greece.

The Valentine has been bought and will set sail to the other side of the world this week, a spokesperson confirmed.

Duncan Roy, the general manager of Interislander operations, said it was " a good time” to sell the Valentine and “realise the financial benefits”.

“With our renewed focus on asset management and increased maintenance, we have sufficient freight capacity on our other three ships.”

Having additional crew available from the sale of Valentine will support the increased focus on delivering reliability in Interislander’s core fleet, Roy said. “While the exact terms of the sale are commercial-in-confidence, we are happy with the sale.”

Roy said in June Valentine has served its purpose by providing additional capacity, but he said it has not been required consistently.

“Keeping her ready for sailing and crewed is taking funding and resource that could be better invested in strengthening reliability in the rest of the fleet.”

Valentine was originally leased to provide additional freight capacity when Kaiarahi’s gearbox was “catastrophically damaged” in August 2021 and was out of action for more than a year.

Valentine was subsequently purchased at the end of this lease period in January 2023.

Vita Molyneux is a Wellington-based journalist who covers breaking news and stories from the capital. She has been a journalist since 2018 and joined the Herald in 2021.