Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
Instead, the victim impact statements from those on board Kaitaki when it came close to disaster left a chill in the courtroom’s stale air. It was a reminder of what the human cost could be if our politicians don’t get the Cook Strait question right.
KiwiRail was sentenced and fined $412,500 for the incident after Maritime NZ charged the state-owned enterprise under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
Convinced they were going to drown
The girl’s panic attack included screaming, shaking and hyperventilating for about half an hour before she could be calmed down. The parent she was travelling with wondered how they would keep their elderly parents and three children alive if they ended up in the water.
Another child was convinced they were all going to drown. Passengers recorded final videos to loved ones.
One person described seeing how close they were to the rocks.
“Aratere was standing by but a transition to that ship on the few lifeboats available would have been a disaster in that wind.”
The passenger said it was traumatic not because of what they went through but because of what they came so close to.
They wouldn’t have known it at the time but before the anchors took hold, the ship was just 12 minutes from drifting into shallow dangerous water.
The impact of having more than a dozen accounts read in succession was palpable. It captured something that perhaps has not previously been fully appreciated.
Many of the victims explained they didn’t grasp the extent of the situation until after they had disembarked Kaitaki and watched the news coverage in the days following the incident.
One person said it was the realising of the true seriousness of the incident afterwards that was “absolutely horrifying”.
“To hear from family and friends that all emergency services had been called out, along with the four-wheel drive clubs, to assist in a potential rescue rammed home the magnitude of the incident.”
Another person said it had taken more than a year to get back on a ferry to the South Island where they have a bach in the Marlborough Sounds.
Others described a similar feeling about the Aratere incident and were pleased to know it was not a full ship of passengers involved this time.
Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy told the court he had personally read every victim impact statement and apologised for the incident and the distress it caused.
He made assurances that following an extensive review of the fleet, KiwiRail has taken a series of steps to prevent anything similar from happening in the future.
Hobbs said it was clear as long ago as 2007 that KiwiRail was on notice about the risk of compensators failing.
“It was an obvious risk”, he said.
Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy told the court he had personally read every victim impact statement and apologised for the incident. Photo / Tim Cuff
KiwiRail failed to replace them as scheduled in August 2022 and again later that year in October when the chief engineer raised concerns about one of the compensators.
“Industry standards indicate that the compensators should be replaced every four years. This was clearly not done”, Hobbs said.
“There is nothing to suggest that the cost of replacing the compensators was prohibitive nor was it necessary for the compensators to be replaced while the vessel was on dry dock. The compensators could have been replaced as part of routine maintenance.”
KiwiRail stressed it did have systems and regular maintenance in place but accepted these had failed.
“All the systems in the world will be of little use if they are not effective systems and not followed”, Hobbs said.
No timeline for decision on new ferries
After hearing about the horror of that day- the vomit everywhere, the constant rolling of the ship back and forth, the Wahine disaster gnawing at the edges of passengers’ minds - it was impossible not to think about the future of Interislander.
When the Kaitaki incident happened, two new mega ferries were due to arrive by 2026 to replace the Interislander fleet.
On July 1, Willis told Newstalk ZB Drive host Heather du Plessis-Allan that the public would “find out about the ferries once ministers have made decisions”.
Asked today whether there was a timeline for which he would like to have a decision made, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said: “No, we will keep working our way through it”.
“We are determined to find a solution for the Strait that ensures we have a critical piece of infrastructure connecting the North and South Island and we’ve got to make sure it’s right-sized and appropriate for the future”, Luxon said.
“But we have time, the current ferries don’t expire their natural useful life until the end of 2029. It’s important that KiwiRail continues, like any other transport company, to maintain its fleet incredibly well and to the high standards expected of it.”
But after what the court heard yesterday, the eventual big reveal will probably come as cold comfort to those Kaitaki passengers who have vowed never to sail with Interislander again after so narrowly avoiding disaster.
