Transport Minister Simeon Brown says he understands there was a new piece of equipment recently installed on the Interislander ferry Aratere which ran into the South Island coastline overnight, and the crew “lost the ability to steer the ship”.   

Brown, speaking after a briefing about the incident with Maritime NZ, KiwiRail, Interislander and port authorities, said independent investigations were underway by Maritime NZ and Transport Accident Investigation Commission. 

Recovery teams are now aiming to float the ship on the next high tide at 9pm, with KiwiRail taking advice from the Picton Harbourmaster and global experts. 

The ferry hit the South Island coastline just after 10pm yesterday, with the Maritime Union warning the failure could have been disastrous had it occurred in bad weather. 

Forty-seven people - eight commercial truck drivers and 39 crew - spent the night on the grounded ferry, and by 10am today had been onboard for nearly 13 hours. The drivers and 12 of the crew disembarked just before 11am. 

Brown said it was great there had been no loss of life and everyone onboard the ship was safe. 

He also understood there was no livestock on the ship. 

“There was a lot of technical work to refloat the ship. There is water in the ballast, which needed to be moved to the right place, among other factors.” 

He said the Government had been “incredibly disappointed” in the state of the asset management of the ferries, but added the advice from Maritime New Zealand was it had improved in the past few months. 

“Refloating the ferry is an operation for KiwiRail and they and Maritime New Zealand are working together for the oil response which is an environmental concern.” 

• Passengers disembarking Interislander after 13 hours onboard

Brown said the decision to cancel the previous ferry project was due to the cost blowout of the ships and the potential landside project costs. 

“Any new ships under the cancelled contract would not have arrived until 2026 and the infrastructure would not have been ready.” 

The Interislander ferry Aratere which ran into the South Island coastline. The ferry hit the South Island coastline just after 10pm yesterday, with the Maritime Union warning the failure could have been disastrous had it occurred in bad weather. Photo / Tim Cuff 

When asked if he had confidence in the KiwiRail leadership, Brown said that was a question for the Minister of Finance and the Minister of State Owned Enterprises. 

KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy says he cannot speculate on what caused the incident, saying the first focus is to refloat the stricken ship. 

”Today’s focus is to recover the ship, I think any other discussions about any other items are for another day,” he said at Picton Marina. 

Reidy and Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy spoke to media at Picton Marina after the eight passengers onboard and 12 of the 39 crew had disembarked. 

It’s believed the ferry ran aground on a gravel seabed and not jagged rocks, Reidy said. 

”But we are taking technical advice from global experts on the best way to recover the ship.” 

With reports last night saying the ferry suffered a steering failure, Reidy was asked why he cannot give more details about what went wrong after the ship ran aground. 

He said it was because staff on the ship had been “working all night” and were “very tired”. 

”Some of them are asleep and we want to give everyone a rest and get the ship back in [to port] and then sit down and go through what happened,” he said. 

”That’s part of the normal root cause investigation, rather than speculating.” 

When asked about whether a steering failure had caused the incident, Reidy said “we don’t know that”. 

The ferry had experienced issues with the electrical system on the steering that had just been “fully upgraded” but the follow-up investigation would look into that further. 

Reidy said the Transport Accident Investigation Commission and Maritime NZ had taken control of the situation and so KiwiRail and ferry operator Interislander were acting under the investigator’s instructions. 

“There’s a formal investigation underway and we’re not going to speculate ... we’ve got to talk facts,” Roy added. 

Experts are debating when to try to refloat the Aratere ferry.

Roy said a comprehensive maintenance programme of the ship was carried out two weeks ago. That included replacing the steering system.

“We brought in experts from overseas and that was part of our effort and commitment to improving the maintenance and reliability of our ferries,” Roy said.

Roy said his team is going to “give everything we can to getting that ship off” at high tide tonight.

Getting the freight off the ferry remained a secondary concern at the moment with the first task being to recover the ship.

He said the ferry had been carrying a mix of commercial freight and freight inside trucks.

Interislander and KiwiRail would be working with customers to allow freight scheduled for the Aratere to be diverted onto other ferries making the Cook Strait crossing in the coming days.

Reidy said another Interislander ferry, the Kaitaki, was also in maintenance but that KiwiRail was “working through right now with our customers” how to divert scheduled freight from the grounded Aratere to other ships.

While he wouldn’t talk about the disruption to the country caused by the incident, he said Cook Strait formed a part of State Highway 1 that traversed the entire country and provided a $40 billion connection for the country between the North and South islands.

Last month’s maintenance 

The incident has raised questions about the maintenance of the vessels after Roy sent an email to the company’s staff on May 18 saying the steering gear was among parts being repaired while the ferry was in wet dock.

“There is a lot of outstanding work happening on the Aratere in its wet dock at the moment,” Roy wrote.

He then included an update provided by the company’s chief engineer Ryan Campbell.

“Steering gear update – Massive project underway – Approximately 7km of cabling will have been run from the bridge to the steering down aft and control room,” Campbell writes.

Campbell adds “deckhead panels” had been removed through the entire length of the vessel, while divers cleaned the hull and propellers with the propulsion system “receiving yearly maintenance and testing”.

“There a multiple other jobs under way and to be fair too many to list,” Campbell concludes.

One person involved in the transport industry said freight operators had subsequently been told that with the Aratere having been in maintenance and apparently fitted with second-hand parts it would be travelling slower for the first couple of weeks once back in service.

Maritime Union of New Zealand national secretary Carl Findlay, meanwhile, said if the steering had failed on the Aratere during bad weather, or when the ship was in the Cook Strait, the outcome could have been disastrous.

“The Interislander ferries are at end of life, and there have been repeated incidents, such as the loss of power on the Kaitaki last year.”

He said New Zealand has to have modern, fit-for-purpose Cook Strait ferries.

“If this incident does not shake the Government out of its complacency about the need for investment in new vessels and infrastructure, what will it take?”

Findlay said the implications of the Aratere being out of action are serious for the transport network, as it is the only rail-capable ferry on the Cook Strait.

In addition, other Interislander ferries are currently out of service or due for dry dock.

The Kaiarahi is currently laid up in Picton undergoing maintenance, and the Kaitaki is due to go to Singapore dry dock in late July for scheduled maintenance.

The Aratere was laid up last month and underwent maintenance, including on its steering systems. Gearbox issues had also disrupted its schedule and it was awaiting parts from overseas.