Aratere refit delayed because of earthquake

State-owned Cook Strait ferry operator the InterIslander is delaying the refit of its Aratere ferry so it can maintain freight capacity after the Christchurch earthquake.

The ferry was to be in Singapore in mid-March for a nose job and lengthening.

"Our experience after the earlier earthquake last September was that a lot of extra freight and passengers needed to move across Cook Strait for sometime afterwards," Interislander general manager Thomas Davis.

"It would be the wrong thing to reduce capacity to carry people and freight across Cook Strait at this time," he said.

The Aratere will stay in service until Easter and the company will explore options to ensure capacity is maintained.

NZPA

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name:
Your email:	Not displayed to the public
Comment:
Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved.

Anti-spam verification:

Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

KMD completes Placement and Institutional Entitlement Offer
SML - North Island asset sale completed
RAD - Radius Care Expansion Continues with Care Home Acquisition
PFI - Property for Industry Limited Bond Offer Final Terms Sheet
April 1st Morning Report
FSF - Fonterra completes sale of Mainland Group to Lactalis
GNE - Resignation of Chief Financial Officer
PFI - Property for Industry Limited Launches Bond Offer
March 30th Morning Report
HGH Ltd Results for the 6 months ended 1 February 2026