Concerns About Ongoing Cook Strait Ferry Issues

The Maritime Union of New Zealand says the Cook Strait ferry service is struggling, with the entire Interislander fleet currently either suffering breakdowns, wave damage or being taken out of service for audit.

Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Carl Findlay says the vital transport link is hanging by a thread, with ongoing disruption.

He says the Aratere has once again experienced technical issues, following engine shaft problems in Picton on Wednesday evening that caused several hours of delays. Crew members and passengers had to remain on board before being able to disembark in Wellington.

Over the previous weekend, Kaiarahi had its bow door damaged in rough seas, which will be welded shut to allow it to continue to operate until a scheduled dry dock in Singapore in July.

Kaitaki is being pulled from service this weekend for a Maritime NZ audit.

KiwiRail announced in May 2025 it would remove the rail-enabled Aratere ferry from service in August 2025, and is now seeking to cut 70 jobs for MUNZ members in the deck and catering departments on the Aratere.

Mr Findlay says the Union had flagged the dangers of removing a key vessel from service, and the current situation showed that KiwiRail needed to rethink their plan.

He says technical problems with Cook Strait ferries extended to the private operator Strait Shipping, and had their roots in a failure to invest in modern shipping and infrastructure by the Government and private operators.

Mr Findlay says the cancellation of the iRex project by Finance Minister Nicola Willis was going to cause years of disruption as the iRex ferries would have been entering into service over the next year or two.

New ferries announced by Minister of Rail Winston Peters are now not expected until at least 2029.

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