Interislander warns of backlog and heavy bookings until March as sailings resume

The Interislander Cook Strait ferry Kaiarahi, docked in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Interislander sailings are resuming across the Cook Strait but passengers are being warned the ferries are heavily booked until March and there is a backlog to work through after Cyclone Gabrielle.

Sailings were cancelled yesterday as Wellington was lashed by gale-force southerly winds.

Interislander executive general manager Walter Rushbrook said both the Aratere and Kaitaki have since returned to the Cook Strait run but as freight-only services.

The Kaitaki has been doing freight-only services since the incident on January 28 where it lost power to all four of its engines and declared a mayday with 864 people on board.

The Aratere will be taking passengers later today.

Unfortunately, sailings on the Kaiarahi ferry have been cancelled until lunchtime tomorrow.

Rushbrook said there were crew shortages due to sickness and difficulty travelling for some staff due to the cyclone.

“We are working to resolve those issues and expect Kaiarahi to sail at 1pm Thursday from Wellington.”

He said Interislander’s freight-only ship Valentine will sail tomorrow, and they were looking at all options to provide extra capacity.

“However, we are very heavily booked for February and already dealing with a backlog of passengers and freight as a result of yesterday’s weather cancellations, so there is little space available for disrupted customers.”

Rushbrook apologised for the disruption and said Interislander’s service teams were experiencing high levels of demand.

“We ask for your patience and tolerance.”

Desperate customers have had to fork out hundreds of dollars for flights or face up to a month’s wait time to rebook, due to full bookings on both Interislander and Bluebridge ferries.

One of those left scrambling for alternate arrangements was University of Canterbury student Brooke Leyland, who was originally due to sail across on Monday with a car full of her belongings.

When the Herald spoke to Leyland earlier this week, she said she visited the terminal and was able to be squeezed onto a 2am sailing on Thursday morning - though there will be others who remained stuck.

“I have many, many friends on these sailings and they’re all in the same situation,” said Leyland.

“We’re all students with not enough money to cover accommodation for a month’s worth of time,” she said.

“I’ve had friends having to book $400 flights ... so they’ve spent hundreds of dollars trying desperately to get to school.”