Taking
the Ferry between NZ's Islands
Part 2 : Vessels, Journey
Information and Booking Ahead
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The
Kaitaki
is the largest and one of the most modern of the five
vessels providing passenger and car ferry service between
NZ's North and South Islands.
Part of a three part series
on New Zealand's Interisland ferries - see also :
1. History and
Route Information
2. Vessels, Journeys, Bookings
3. Fares, Weather,
Misc
Part
of a series on travel to and in New Zealand -
click the links on the right hand side for more articles.
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The journey between Wellington
and Picton lasts about 3¼ hours, including beautiful scenery
through the Marlborough Sounds, and a fascinating journey
through Wellington's harbor, considered one of the finest
natural harbors in the world.
All five ships are fairly
similar in most respects, and the two companies charge
reasonably comparable fares (although sometimes you might find
that one company has sold out of discounted tickets while the
other still has some.
So concentrate mainly on which
crossing offers the most convenient journey times for your
schedule, and make sure that it is cost competitive.
Vessels
There are five vessels in
service on the route these days, three operated by the
Interislander (the modern day successor to the traditional NZ
Railways 'rail ferries' of yore) and two by the relatively new
company, Bluebridge.
Interislander - three vessels
The Arahura dates
back to 1984 and carries up to 550 passengers and 124 cars.
The
Aratere can carry up to 360 passengers and 130
cars, and came into service in 1999. Both these ships were
custom built for the NZ ferry operator.
The third ship is the Kaitaki, built
in 1994 and introduced to NZ in 2005 after service in Northern
Europe for the first ten years of her life.
The Kaitaki is the
largest of the three ships, carrying up to 1650 passengers and
736 cars, but with no provision to carry rail wagons. It
was formerly known variously as Isle of Innisfree,
Pride of Cherbourg, and Stena Challenger before
transferring to New Zealand and becoming Kaitaki.
Apparently the old seamen's superstition about it being bad luck
to change a ship's name no longer applies!
Bluebridge - two vessels
The Santa Regina
arrived in late 2002 and started service in 2003, having
formerly operated between Corsica and Marseilles in the
Mediterranean. She was joined by the slightly smaller
Monte Stello in 2006, which had formerly served between Las
Palmas and Tenerife.
Unlike the Interislander,
Bluebridge have honored the tradition of not renaming their
ships.
The 'Lynx' fast catamaran ferries
There have been repeated
attempts to operate a faster service across Cook Strait, using
large high speed (40 knot compared to 18 knot) 'wave piercing'
catamarans. These were generally operated only over the
busier summer seasons, from 1994 - 2005. Four different
vessels were used (one at a time) and all were named Lynx
(and numbered consecutively 1, 2, 3 & 4). All were built
by Incat in Hobart (Tasmania), Australia. They were all
quite large, holding up to 200 cars and 800 passengers.
Unfortunately, all vessels
are speed limited while traveling through the Marlborough
Sounds, so it is not possible for these vessels to halve the
travel time, as would at first seem indicated. Instead,
they have generally reduced the travel time from about 3 hrs 10
minutes to about 2 hours 15 minutes - definitely a help, but
hardly a transformational reduction in travel time (particularly
when you add the 'check in an hour in advance' requirement and
the time to get off the ferry at the other end, etc - in other
words the total journey time drops from about 4½ hours to 3½
hours.
The second challenge has
been environmental groups have always complained about the fast
ferries in the Marlborough Sounds.
The third challenge is that
the cost of the fast ferry journey is necessarily much higher
than the cost of the slower more fuel efficient ferry, but in
return for the extra cost charged (about 20% more), passengers only got
to trim about an hour off their total travel time.
So the vessels were never an
outstanding success and at this stage it seems unlikely we'll
see a return of fast catamaran service any time soon.
Do You Need to Book Your
Journey?
This varies of course during
the year, but if you are traveling with a car, the answer is
'ideally yes' pretty much year round. If you are traveling
without a car, booking becomes less essential.
Typically the ferries will
fill up with cars before they fill up with foot passengers,
although the Kaitaki can be an exception to that - it has
a much greater car to passenger capacity ratio than the other
two ferries. The Arahura might be your best bet for
being able to walk on.
Busy times of year are New
Zealand's summer in general, and school holidays in particular
(Easter, May and August as well as the summer holidays from
early December to early February),
rising to a peak from mid-December through to mid January.
During this peak period, you should book even as foot
passengers, and as far in advance as possible. By way of
example, at the time of writing this in mid August, a few of the
most popular sailings around the Christmas/New Year period had
already sold out completely.
You can book a short time or
a long time in advance (up to six months), and as soon as you have certain plans
you should do so.
On the other hand, if you're planning on
'just winging it' and don't want to have a fixed itinerary, then
you will probably be okay, particularly in the off-season
(ie primarily winter), and the other part of no fixed itinerary is
that if you miss a sailing or two, then it isn't the end of the
world, because there is nowhere you have to be on the other
side.
But if
you have an important connection you must make - for example,
you are traveling from Wellington to Picton to then connect with
the train on to Christchurch - you shouldn't take a risk and
should book your travel.
Standby Car Travel
If you are feeling
adventurous, you can get in line and hope for the best.
Two of the three
Interislander ferries (Arahura
and Aratere) share their space with both regular vehicles
and also rail wagons, and when accepting car bookings, they make
a generous assumption as to how much rail freight will be taken
on the sailing. Many times not as much rail freight
eventuates as has been allowed for, and that frees up extra
space for cars, trucks, buses, etc.
In addition there are always
some 'no shows' for regular vehicle bookings, so even if you
were told that the sailing is full, you might be fortunate and
squeeze on.
Needless to say, if
traveling standby, the earlier you arrive, the better your place
in line. You should consider arriving several hours ahead
of the sailing time.
While waiting, you can leave your
vehicle and go into town (Picton) or the city (Wellington) for a
while, but should be sure to be back at your car for when the
ferry arrives into the terminal.
Journey Description
Your journey starts before
you board - you generally are requested to arrive the better
part of an hour before the ship sails, and boarding will
probably commence about 20 - 30 minutes before the ship sails.
A typical journey has you
spending about 40 minutes in Wellington harbor, about 30 minutes
sailing around the coast of the bottom of the North Island, then
about an hour crossing Cook Strait followed by another hour
going through the Marlborough Sounds.
Your time in the Marlborough
Sounds is always wonderfully beautiful and calm, your time in
the open water can be anywhere from outstandingly calm to
outrageously rough, and things in Wellington harbor are usually
reasonably calm (see our discussion on
weather in part 3).
Food and drinks are sold onboard, and there are various lounges where you can enjoy the
journey or even watch a movie, as well as going out on the open decks. You can't
access the vehicle decks while at sea, and you can't stay in
your car for the journey.
There is a shop with
souvenirs and other items for sale.
The Aratere and
Kaitaki also have semi-private lounges you can access for an
extra fee (sort of a bit like business class on a plane).
Baggage
Typically you place your
bags in luggage trolleys at one end prior to boarding the ferry,
and then collect them off the trolleys at the other end once you
have disembarked. You can check two pieces of luggage for
free, each weighing up to 32kg (70lbs).
This is a simple and easy
process.
Day Excursions
Some people enjoy doing a
roundtrip sailing, usually from Wellington and back to
Wellington, all in the same day. If you take an early
ferry over from Wellington to Picton you can then stay a few
hours in Picton before taking a later ferry back to Wellington
again.
This makes for a full but
very pleasant day, and is fun in the summer, but of course not
quite so pleasant in the winter. The Interislander
sometimes has discounted fares for day trippers.
Part of a three part series
on New Zealand's Interisland ferries - see also :
1. History and Route
Information
2. Vessels, Journeys, Bookings
3. Fares, Weather,
Misc
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Originally published
20 Aug 2010, last update
30 May 2021
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