Kerre Woodham: What's gone so horribly, horribly wrong with our ferries?

If it wasn't so vitally important, so serious, and so expensive, you would have to laugh, wouldn't you? Interislander’s Aratere ferry will be out of action today after it hit a linkspan coming into a berth in Wellington, damaging its hull.  

This is not their first rodeo when it comes to making mistakes. A string of incidents, if you will. Aratere suffered a reported staring failure on June 21st and ran aground in Picton shortly afterwards. It had only returned to full service late last month. What do you know? 9th of August, out of action for a couple of days. The Harbour Master Grant Nalder told the New Zealand Herald the ferry had made contact with a linkspan, which is the dock ramp that allows vehicles to access the ferry. The hull was damaged, but well above the water line, there were no injuries and no oil leaks. So, let's be grateful for small blessings,  

Transport Minister Simeon Brown spoke to Heather du Plessis-Allan last night and said at this stage they don't know what caused the ferry to bang into the Wharf and yes, there was a strong wind, but hey, you get those in Wellington.  

SB: Ultimately, they'll be looking into that and have more to say about that shortly, but there are high wind conditions here in Wellington right now.  

HDPA: Yeah, but that's normal Simeon, that's not really a surprise, is it?  

SB: We've been making our point very clearly around the operations of that organisation that they need to be lifting the game, and that's why we're refreshing the board and we're setting very clear expectations.  

HDPA: Stoked you’re doing it, but they, they keep on crashing the boat in the meantime, don’t they?   

SB: I want to make it very clear to the public that we have been unimpressed with the way KiwiRail has been managing its assets and operations.  

HDPA: But this is not an asset management problem, is it Simeon? I mean this is just somebody being dumb.  

SB: Well, we don't know all the answers yet.   

HDPA: Yes, well, possibly I should say, possibly being dumb. How long is this thing going to be out of commission for?   

SB: I think a couple of days is what I’ve been advised.  

HDPA: Man alive. Are you just pulling your hair out at these people?  

SB: Ah, well, yes.  

“Ah, well, yes.” Well, you would, wouldn't you?  We've had issue, after issue, after issue. I mean is this normal? Is this just part of the process of sailing a great big ferry? That seas are uncertain, and winds are unpredictable. I mean, you would expect the odd strong zephyr blowing up your jacksie if you were sailing in Wellington, but you know, are they unpredictable? Do they need to hang a tennis ball at the end of the Wharf the way older people do to make sure they don't go into the end of the garage? Would that be helpful? Perhaps a big orange buoy suspended from a crane, so they know how far they've got before they hit the dock perhaps? I don't know. Trying to be helpful, because it is part of State Highway 1, and we've said this before, if freight can't get across, that's a problem. If people can't get across, that's a problem. At this rate, because I know our athletes are forever looking for part-time gigs in between the Olympics, maybe we could harness up the women's gold winning K4 team to tow the bloody freight across the Cook Strait because they would get it there faster and they would be more reliable I’m picking, than KiwiRail and the Interislander.  

Because how hard is it to run a ferry service? Clearly it is very, very difficult. I mean, we've even got dear old Bluebridge who had a few oopsies in ‘23. Thinking back when I was growing up, the only thing that stopped the ferries back in the day were the unions, who went on strike every school holidays. So, our bi-annual trips to the South Island were all very touch and go. We weren't quite sure if the ferries were going to sail, but that was because the unions went on strike, not because a ferry had run itself into a wharf, or run aground, or had automatic pilot put on, or there was no question that the ship was seaworthy. Perhaps that's why we had unions, they'd go on strike until they were certain that the ships were seaworthy.  

But I mean, how hard can it be to go from point A to point B? To go across a channel that we've been going across for more than 100 years. Is it the quality of the ships we have, the quality of the workmanship from the people who work on these ferries? What's gone so horribly, horribly wrong? 

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