New Zealand Ferry Aratere Grounded and Refloated | Issues with Maritime Infrastructure
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 มิ.ย. 2024
- MV New Zealand Ferry Grounded
What's Going on With Shipping?
June 24, 2024
In this episode, Sal Mercogliano - a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner - discusses the grounding of the New Zealand ferry Aratere and issues with maritime infrastructure worldwide.
#supplychain #shipping #ferry #aratere #newzealand
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MarineTraffic
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New Zealand Interisland Ferry Goes Hard Aground in Latest Incident
maritime-executive.com/articl...
Kiwirail
www.kiwirail.co.nz/
New Zealand ferry that ran aground is refloated
www.reuters.com/world/asia-pa...
Recap: Interislander ferry Aratere refloated after nearly 24 hours grounded
www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/5...
Salvors Refloat Grounded Ferry off New Zealand's South Island
maritime-executive.com/articl...
Washington’s ferry system steers toward less choppy waters
washingtonstatestandard.com/2...
Maersk to launch dedicated coastal service in New Zealand
www.maersk.com/news/articles/...
New Zealand Ocean network - Polaris service upgrade
www.maersk.com/news/articles/...
🚨Just some additional links and stories provided by some viewers on this. Also, it appears that Scotland is experiencing a similar problem.🚨
www.1news.co.nz/2024/03/12/cuts-to-public-services-as-landlords-await-a-29b-tax-break/
www.stuff.co.nz/national/133286298/not-so-shipshape-a-catalogue-of-complications-for-the-cook-strait-ferries
www.reddit.com/r/nzpolitics/comments/1dmfka5/engine_parts_for_cook_strait_mega_ferries_already/
Of that $3B only $551M of it was for the new boats, which was a fixed contract, it cost around $300M to cancel the construction with Hyundai. It's estimated, to build the same boats now, it'd cost 40% more due to inflation and other cost rises. The other $2.5B was in port infrastructure maintenance, improvements, earthquake resilience and there was extra cost due to current location of the Wellington port, rather than a newly suggested location. This is all just after landlords have been given a $3B tax cut, seems like New Zealand has it's priorities in order.
Mate! You have covered this story better than NZ media could ever imagine. Informative and straight to the point! Keep it up 👍
Our media is a complete joke.
@@dallasfrost1996 And not a very funny joke at that. They're pathetic little lackeys.
Bought and paid for, by whom I don't know.
@@dallasfrost1996 Sorry but thats being way too kind.
@@wayneshilcock3027 Very easy to find this information, but it might not be who you expect
As a kiwi, thanks for covering this. Ps.. it's Picton.. said " Pick tin"
Sorry about that.
@@wgowshipping its fish and chips… said fush n chups
@@wgowshipping No worries mate. 👍
How do you pronounce Aratere? Aratiree?
@@allo-other it is a Maori word so the A makes an Ah sound and the e makes the same sound as in meh (same vowels as in Japanese if that helps)
Ah rah te re
I’ve been on that ship in NZ… the view from the top of the deck is worth the trip alone
That depends if you can keep the water surface BELOW you and not above!
@@randallreed9048 a Ukrainian flag… that’s getting rare. Is coke head Zelensky and his money begging regime still worth the support?
Was it parked on the shingle? 🤣
Personally I prefer to travel cook straight on bluebridge, the service, well everything’s better imo
Wanna bet the eventual replacement ferries come in in excess of the $3Bil value of the cancelled program?😂
@@dirtdevil70 Yep, nothing gets cheaper as time goes on.
Brought back memories of the loss of the ferry Wahine in Wellington Harbour in 1968.
Has to be noted that the Cook Straight is renowned as being one of the roughest in the world, so the ferries that operate there will have had encountered more than your average sea conditions, which would impact on operational maintainence and life expectancy.
Very good point, I also mentioned this in my comment before I read yours. Have a good day.
The tides are out of sync across Cook straight, so it can be pretty entertaining out there (as someone who lived in Island Bay looking out over that ferry route, and also having sailed it on a barquentine). Make no mistake, that area is both stunningly beautiful and absolutely deadly, only good ships with good crews should be anywhere near it.
The conditions commonly encountered in Cook St are demanding indeed, but they wouldn't have contributed to the maintenance & operational problems that KiwiRail has been in the news for recently.
50kt winds are common, people don't realise how bad it is
@@Secretlyanothername I do. That was one of the reasons why I moved to Sydney about thirty something years ago.
Sal, put it on your bucket list as a must do. That ferry trip from Wellingon, capital city, great harbour, LOTR etc across to Picton in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds is a great trip on a nice day, not so much on a bad day. The South Island basically has a mountain range down the middle and is very beautiful, great for tourism.
Make sure that you are on deck when the ferry lines up to go through the narrow entrance to Tory Channel. To imagine going through on an old ferry past its prime is scary.
NZ is 1,000 miles long and cut in half by Cook Strait that is very deep and has strong currents running through. It can get very nasty when a storm comes up from Antarctica.
I used to live on Wellington's South Coast, there were 3 shipwrecks across the road, basically smashed to pieces. 5m swells are common, 10m swells rarer but absolutely magnificent smashing the shore, being a bit messy.
Often it was fun to watch a ferry like the Aratere trundle past in a storm plunging and lifting, burying its nose and lifting its stern out so you could see the props and rudder. They would cancel the sailing for passengers and freight but still run the ferry back to Wellington for repositioning.
The wreck of the 9,000t inter-island ferry Wahine in 1968 that tried to enter Wellington Harbour in an incredibly bad storm with over 700 passengers aboard is a story worth looking at. Basically a big, new ship, roll-on, roll-off, purpose built in UK tried a run in with following heavy seas but wind gusts over 240kph, unknown how high as the weather station wind measures got broken, blinded the radar and vision, the ship was lost in a "narrow" channel, bashed a reef, lost props and drifted in, foundered, rolled, 53 died a few hundred metres from shore.
The wreck of the Mikhail Lermonotov in 1986 is a bizarre story about a dumb piloting error sinking a big cruise ship that had just left Picton.
Cook Strait is a popular place to get wrecked.
Thank you for a very good post.
Im in total agreement with you! I've been across in all sorts of weather including one wild crossing that had half the passengers throwing up and the rest of us hanging on for dear life! Always enjoyed the wait in Picton at the fabulous Terminus hotel! Bit rough but a lot of fun 😁
you forgot the Pacific charger a freighter which went up on baring head in a storm in the early 80s they told to wait for a pilot but didn't it was aground for a couple of months before it was refloated and repaired.
then there was the wreck of th Taiwanese fishing boat on the south coast down near red rocks mid 80s.
Cook strait is known one of dangerous waters of the world. west coast of new Zealand has been well known to be bad Greymouth and Westport bars and also Manukau heads
The Aratere has an interesting history. For example, the vessel couldn't be used when delivered (brand new) due to safety concerns over the deck railings not meeting standard. In 2011 she was lengthened by 30m; due to the longer waterline both propellors were replaced with different pitch to get better efficiency from the ferry. Subsequently one of those propellors fell off. The original propellors were then re-installed and the ferry has never achieved the intended efficiency gains or speeds from the longer waterline though capacity was increased by 30%.
At least the front didn't fall off.
@@marvindebot3264 I don't think it was outside the environment😉
I remember the bloody prop falling off it. Been on it a few times too
Ships, hull and their diesel engines have a limited life , 30 years would be about it for a small diesel ferry. The NZ Parliament and US Congress does not seem to grasp the basic facts of the deterioration of steel and parts over time and you can not extent the life of a ferry or a missile cruiser past a certain limit no matter what you fund or declaim in parliament or congress/
The Aratere had been sailing a longer route for the last month due to the maintenance issue mentioned at 6:55 The longer route enters the Sounds via Queen Charlotte Sound rather than entering the sounds via Tory Channel. Tory Channel is a lot narrower in parts especially the entrance from Cook Strait.
I was searching for this explanation after seeing the tracking map at 4.28. Thanks.
Yeah noticed that it was not the normal route on marine traffic. Hence the longer travel time.
I’m a New Zealander and have used the Cook Strait ferry’s more times than I can count in my 68 tears on this planet.
This is an excellent analysis of the issues we face here with a ferry service that is becoming more and more unreliable.
It is important to note that the Interislander is not the only service provider on this route. Blue Bridge ferries also run a solid schedule between the islands.
Back about 18 months ago we were subjected to a horror spell where both providers went through a major series of outages causing serious disruption to people’s plans and business commitments.
It must be noted that the Cook Strait is no milk run. It can be a very challenging starch of water and has claimed a ship or two in its time. You’ve probably heard of it but if not check out the Wahine Disaster of 1964 when 53 people lost their lives. Life can be very interesting in our corner of the Pacific.
Love your channel and am now a subscriber.
Kia Kaha. Graham.
Happy to host you in NZ for free. I’m sure others will too. So get on a plane. Come and explore what’s happening around our coastline.
Bed here in Cristchurch South Island .Ex-fisherman and boatbuilder more than happy to host.
great job on the story.
@ddstnz
Definitely don't go to North island unless you want vehicle broken into and burglarized and attacked and robbed.
Loosing power is becoming the new the Dog ate my homework excuse all over the Shipping Industry lately.
sounds like a Bridge Too Far to me
Sorry, I'll get my coat...
@@user936I liked the picture of the Dali sailing out of Baltimore between the missing spans thinking to myself as if I was the bridge - try to hit me now sucker!
But I swear it’s true! Basically!
In this case loss of steering vs. loss of power. In the case of MV Dali loss of power also resulted in loss of steering. Look up Esso Brussels/Sea Witch if you want to see a horrific result.
Washington State ferries are indeed aged. Little thought given to replacement (while the state legislature has spent over ONE BILLION dollars on a homeless program that has failed).
Combine that with understaffing, users get no assurance that sailing occurs as scheduled.
If you think the RNZN is under resourced, take a look at the RNZAF.
The NZDF has to run on the smell of an oily rag.
I’m totally using that analogy, thank you. 👍
@@stephanieparker1250 Kia Ora! From your ADF mates across the ditch.
@@whya2ndaccount 🥰🥰🥰
Apparently all our public services have to sniff on the same oily rag. And the rag's drying out
I have seem some videos on ferries world wide. I have seen ferries departing and berthing in terrible weather with huge seas and strong winds. It is just crazy how the Captains are pressured into sailing just to keep up with the sailing schedule. It makes me wonder why the Captains just inform the Company conditions too dangerous to sail or berth. Unfortunately this does not happen often.
I still find it difficult to believe there are only 5 million New Zealanders, they seem to be all over the place!
It's hard to believe until you watch Sigi's Travel Videos on TH-cam and notice all the seemingly empty land between towns!
We are, 😅😅😅😅.
We have like 500000 to 700,000 ex pat kiwis living in Aussie alone with another roughly 200,000 to 300,000 scattered around the rest of the world. Not quite Irish scale dispora but a lot considering there were only 3 million of us in the early 1970's
and when you find us. we will overwhelm you with enthusiasm and friendliness LOL
There's an old story about an Australian couple who found all the hard to reach places in the world, threw a dart and went into the back end of China to a small town that hadn't seen a travellers since before the second world war.
The Aussies got there and got quickly pointed to a New Zealand couple who got there a week before then and knew enough Mandarin to communicate with the locals.
They had a grand old time together.
I'm from NZ, been waiting to see if you would cover this event. Great content, excellent report. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
You would need to spend lot of time with internet searches to get what Sal gives in 15 minutes.
The Missus and I have been on board the Aratere, and experienced some of what the Cook Strait deals out: in the lounge on the top floor (and under orders to remain seated), waves were breaking OVER the windows on our level. It was almost new back then, and I can't imagine that three decades of that kind of wear and tear hasn't taken its toll.
Sal, the issue not sufficiently covered in the media, is that the revamping of the shoreside, ferry, infrastructure facilities was going to be at a huge cost and take many years. Because the two new ferries from South Korea were so much larger than the current ones, berthing, loading and discharging facilities had to have squillions of dollars thrown at them in both Picton and Wellington, in order to accommodate these huge replacements. There would have been other down-stream issues as well. It became a bit of a nightmare, when one considers that "Bigger always seems to be better" these days! Carrying railway wagons is a big deal for our connectivity also and is not an easy thing to do!
Also, there is another ferry operator across Cook Strait (Blue Bridge) that does not get into the limelight news as much as Kiwi rail does!
Again, could you kindly have a look at the ferry service between the U.K, France and the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey. That would be terrific. Thanks for your epic contributions Sal.
As usual govt incompetence.
Smaller vessels making more frequent trips is what is needed for both the public AND to minimise the damage done by the wash going through the marlborough sounds.
This should have been simple logic,but, we here in NZ ,as in the US are governed by self serving idiots.
Expect more stories on this subject in the future.
"Squillions of dollars" - at three billion for two ferries and facilites good for 100 years, as opposed to 4 billion in tax cuts to landlords or 7.2 billion on roads to keep the government's cronies in trucking and road construction happy?
A big factor in the increasing cost of the shoreside facilities was also around changes to geotech assessments and increased seismic standards from what I understand. But the whole point of the project was more along the lines of a do it once do it right sort of approach rather than our typical incrementalist approach bodging solutions together.
@@tomsemmens6275 Dont spread the tax cuts for Landlords LIE on youtube dude. It was a simple reversal of Labour stopping a business claiming interest on borrowings to run a business. Labour sort to punish rental property owners by not allowing them to claim interest as a tax deductible - which had been in place since forever.
@@davepannekoek1562 My wife and I own seven rentals and we are going to benefit big time from this tax reversal. Still doesn't make it the most pressing issue facing the country - the money would be much better spent elsewhere. We do better than OK, we don't need more money when this lot is busy punching down the whole time by cutting funding to foodbanks - or canceling critical pieces of infrastructure like new ferries, etc.
It is pronounced Picton not pincton lol. I am super impressed you covered this Sal. Made my day 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Sal, you make it so easy to get smarter about our world. You do great work---for someone so young!
I appreciate that!
Hi from New Zealand I’m also a commercial driver too so glad I didn’t get stuck on the ferry 😅
Thank you Sal for another interesting video. One thing that you didn’t mention is that Cook Strait is a very rough stretch of water, they were very lucky last year when the engine failed, or whatever happened, that it was a calm day or the outcome would have been very different. Another thing that arose from that incident was that the tugs were apparently not capable of dealing with a ship of this size. This reminded me of the Wahine disaster, I watched it sink, when they also found that the local tugs were not capable of handling the situation. A couple of years later Wellington had new red tugs! A problem with the previous proposed new ferries was that there was only going to be two much larger ships which required brand new terminals and were possibly too large for Tory Channel, especially at the entry into the channel from Cook Strait. I could be wrong with what I have just written as I am not a mariner, if I am wrong please correct me. All the best everyone from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺 PS congratulations on 300k subscribers
Sal what about a show about the ferries up and down the Amazon River !
Great Video Sal, I'm a Kiwi, (New Zealander) I have been traveling between the South and North island since I was a Kid, the initial ferries ran from Lyttelton to Wellington and was an over night service, when NZR opened the Picton to Wellington service, the trip was reduced to 3 hours and Rail wagons were included! this was the start of was was a very reliable regular service, I have traveled on the Aratere numerous, times including one trip in very adverse conditions, The Labour party had approved a 3 billion budget to replace the 3 ferries (2 leased and 1 owned ) on being elected the National Party canceled the deal in a Trump like thinking action. Thanks for sharing
Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, on the Atlantic coast of Canada, there are many ferries connecting smaller island communities, 38 ports of call. The provincial government runs most of them and bought two used ferries in Europe a few years ago. They were refurbished at greater cost than budgeted and, of course, took longer than expected. Once they arrived in Newfoundland the ferries did NOT fit at the existing docks. And the refurbishment of the ferries were/are the cause of lots of downtime to fix the repairs. It's mind boggling. We need more new ferries to replace several old ones which are way beyond their life expectancy. We were a sea faring nation until we joined Canada in 1949 and the sea doesn't seem to be important anymore.
Keep voting Liberal, Peggy. And you will keep having problems. Newfoundlanders they love their Trudeau.
Picton. Named for Lord Picton of the battle of Waterloo. Lord Pinkton when sunburnt. :P
Lord Pinkton, Master of the King's Lobsters.
Another factor here is these Ferrys get an absolute pounding with the Cook Strait being one of the rougher crossing in the world. Pretty often its a pretty windy and rough crossing. NZ is in the roaring 40s, and the wind is particularly funneled through Cook Strait. In the 1968 Wahine disaster in Wellington harbour winds hit 100 knots (and were averaging a more common 50 knots before that). I remember being on roll on / roll off crossing where waves are breaking across the front of the Ferry, walking was difficult (you really had to hang on to something at all times) and you could feel the vibration as the propellers came out the water occasionally - most of the passengers were sick (a bit of a nightmare). In the earlier days there were a few cars lost overboard on Cook Strait! These days they don't sail if its quite that rough but you get the picture.
This is a huge problem in Scotland. Mainly due to the scandal of the government squandering millions on 2 new ferries which are years late.
Thanks for the additional info!
This passed me by and I'm only across the south boarder.
Sorry, didn't see this comment before mentioning it myself.
The previous owners of the shipyard messed up the designs, they also went bust and was took over by the government.
CalMac itself has an excellent safety record, its last major incident was 51 years ago in 1973.
no problems buying camper vans though haha
Found your channel about a year ago , never thought shipping could be so interesting, there is a ferry service that runs between New York State and Vermont over lake Champlain and the fairies they use are ancient , I have no idea what they’re gonna do
Beautiful pronunciation of Aratere, you got it spot on. As a NZ'der, I was surprised to see something like this make its way to the US.
Sadly, these Kiwirail ferries breaking down all the time has become a bit of a joke - just like the plane our Prime Minister is meant to use while going overseas. We often take bets on whether it will make it the entire journey without "breaking down". Transport and infrastructure has been our biggest let-down, and that is even more apparent with the massive power cut that hit the upper north island because one transmission tower fell over (of 48 bolts, 36 were removed during maintenance and the tower predictably said; "You want me to fall over? Sure..."). Bluebridge (StraitNZ) runs their services without hiccup and their ferries were all bought used from Europe.
Kiwirail needs to be a little more realistic and look for something that suits our current infrastructure instead of asking for another 1.5 billion atop the 550 million for the new ferries. This would solve long and short term problems of reliability while they could work on the infrastructure funding over a longer period of time, making the Interislander service more reliable and thus, more trusted for people to use.
Did not, liar. Roll the R's. Nowhere near getting the pronounciation right. You must be a pakeha.
I'm sure you have more than a few Kiwi's subscribed that would be thrilled for you to visit.
Years of deferred maintenance has finally caught up with us as a nation beyond shipping.
We took a Marine Atlantic ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Channel Port au Basque Newfoundland (Newfoundland & Labrador) with our 49’ long pickup truck and travel trailer combination, and back again a month later. We were on the M/V Highlanders. It was kind of like a cruise ship. We did a midnight crossing (7 hours) so we booked a cabin, but this was during CoVID, so booking a cabin was required. It was quite the experience, especially embarking/debarking the ferry with our rig; the first time we had ever done anything like that. Amazing places to visit, by the way. Interesting side fact, the ferry service is part of the trans-Canada highway system, Route 1.
Sal, thank you for educating me on all these issues!
Hi Sal a comment from Wellington NZ here, the Aratere was built in Spain and as you noted she had some serious problems on her arivel here which delayed her going into service while some of the problems were fixed to allow her to meet Survey requirements and it didn't stop there. In her first year of service she lost all power including lighting fortunately she had not even departed Wellington harbor. After her trip to I believe Hong Kong where she was considerably lengthened and upon her return to NZ it was found that she had a greater persistence in rolling in stormy weather crossing Cook Strait and having traveled on her both before and after her extension this was very noticeable, I have crossed the Strait many times over the years including the earlier vessels that were considerably smaller around the five thousand gross tons and the Strait is not a place to take chances as it will get you to if you let your gard down. Aratere is the only remaining vessel on the service that was built new, the other two vessels are 26 and 29 years old and were bought second hand as a stop gap situation until new vessels could be purchased and built, Cook Strait is considered to be a part of State Highway 1 running from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island and therefore subject to Government support funding and this is where everything gets held up hence you get cost overruns on projects but it is worth noting that the increased costs were not for building the ferries but for the new terminals at the ports and the incoming Government this year just canceled the contract immediately now they have to go back to the drawing board and start over again which I'm sure will mean long delays in getting started and we will probably not see any new vessels this decade and probably cost a lot more than these would have. Now don't get me started on our navy because our whole NZDF is well past its use by date, our RNZAF Boeing 757 taking our Priminister to Japan with a trade delegation broke down in New Guinea and he had to travel on on a commercial flight by himself 🤔🤔🤔
"[Lieutenant Commander] Mickey Finn likened himself to a boxer who has no defence, and only one punch in his kit which he was rarely allowed to use. There were times he honestly beieve he was the most useless individual in the whole of New Zealand. He longed for the opportunity to prove otherwise..." From _Sole Survivor_ by Derek Hansen.
Congats on 300K subscribers!🥳
Gidday Gidday Sal. Thank you for your excellent video on New Zealand shipping. I'm a Kiwi working here in shipping. NZ has two ferries companies - the publicly owned KiwiRail Interislander ferries, and the privately run Bluebridge ferries. One is run by a train company, one is run by a shipping company. One is not profitable, one is profitable. One is forced to carry train carriages, one is independent. One takes taxes, one makes taxes...
Just a comment about the track - Aratere was currently sailing the long route through Queen Charlotte Sound due to some already existing concerns about her condition. Normally these ferries enter the sounds by a more direct route through Tory Channel, which is about an hour faster.
I grew up in New Zealand and travelled across Cook Strait many times. The TEV "Wahine" was my favourite ship, until sinking in 1968. In those days, there were two "large" ferries (8000 ton class) which ran overnight between Wellington and Lyttleton (Christchurch), and two 4,000 ton ships which did the three-hour trips between Wellington and Picton. The overnight runs never recovered fully after the "Wahine" disaster, and people found the Picton run more convenient. Also, the fact that New Zealand Rail (then government-owned) owned the Picton ferries and that the Union Steamship Co. Lyttleton ferries did not carry trains had something to do with it. Since then the Picton ferries (like Baltic ferries) have become larger and larger, but not necessarily safer. Cook Strait is a really violent passage, and the ferries have to be truly ocean-going (I well recall 10 metre waves while promenading on the "Wahine" for fresh air...).
At least the "Aratere" didn't suffer the fate of British Columbia's "Queen of the North", which crashed at full speed into an island in 2006 and promptly sank. It was an old German-built ship, originally the "Stena Danica" and I greatly admired her looks when she was laid up in the Fraser River under the name "Queen of Surrey" in the 1970's. That particular disaster was not caused by any equipment failure but by the crew on watch, being "otherwise occupied", not hitting the button on the GPS autopilot when a waypoint was reached.
I suspect that going to fewer, bigger ships is meant to keep costs down, as is using only the Wellington-Picton route. I would argue, however, that if the ships are to be big (e.g. 40,000 ton class), then the Wellington-Lyttleton route should be revived, doing 10-12 hour crossings, while one or two small ships would continue using Picton to serve the northern part of the South Island (e.g. Nelson, Blenheim), with much less impact on the fragile Marlborough Sounds environment (which precludes using the Austal catamaran/trimaran type fast ferries such as those in the Canary Islands e.g. "Benchijigua Express" which I have travelled on). Lyttleton (Christchurch) is centrally located in the South Island, making more sense for road and rail connections than Picton.
As for new ships, wouldn't Germany or Sweden be better sources of really high-quality RoRo ferries? Given the rigours of Cook Strait, high quality and durability should be the goal, with the ships having a longer life and greater reliability (look at the longevity of M/V "Stockholm"). No room for being penny wise, pound foolish here.
Sorry to say every is done on the cheap for short term gains.
Just look at the road and power infrastructure in NZ
Just have to say that the baltic sea is much calmer and also brackish water, compared to nz coastal.
@@johan790 "Baltic" and "calmer" are not two words I ever expected to ever see in the same sentence...
😂
Is Lyttleton the harbour town near Christchurch (in the same way Avonmouth is to Bristol?)
I love this channel. Love the details, Sal! Great job!
Cheers for the explanation 👍👍👍
Another NZ viewer. Thanks for the info. I’ve learnt plenty from your channel the last 6months 👍
Thanks Sal for this great report. Living in Tokyo, I wouldn’t have learned of this incident in NZ. Thanks for sharing and congratulations on achieving 300k subscribers!
Sal, a lot of what you said about New Zealand could apply to the U.S. Great reporting, thanks much!
Thanks for watching!
Transport is extremely politicised in New Zealand and with the recent change in government, the cancellation was not surprising in the least. The current government has decided to pour tens of billions into rural expressways, and whatever you think about that, the money has to come from somewhere. It's very frustrating getting long term commitments from the government on anything, from roading, to public transport, to walking and cycling infrastructure. It seems we're constantly becalmed with decision paralysis and ideological blindness. We desperately need both sides to come together on a twenty or thirty year plan.
300k Sal!!! Been here since day 1. Now that you hit platinum maybe an updated hair style. Rugs get hugs. Thanks for everything continued success. The cook strait ain’t no joke. For a career that long plying those waters she is getting long in the tooth.
The InterIslander ships operated by KiwiRail are NOT the only ferry service.
BlueBridge also provide a service, and operate without any subsidy enjoyed by KiwiRail, which is owned by the government.
It was after BlueBridge started operating that the InterIslander service improved the quality of their service. Prior to the competition their ships were rather squalid.
Thanks for covering this one Sal! I live on the South Island and the cancellation of the new ferries by this new government is so much worse than it seems from the outside, it was used as a political bargaining point by the incoming conservative government last year.
The replacement vessels had been ordered from Hyundai on a fixed price contract with steel costs locked in at 2021 prices, and included a lifetime service/drydock contract as we don't have drydock capacity large enough for our current ferries let alone the new larger ones (another huge issue in this country). They were diesel/electric propulsion with the capacity to run on thrusters alone for short periods of time while in the maritime protection zones of the Sounds, and also featured ship to shore power feed capability for emergency grid power to the port in a post-earthquake scenario.
The cancellation was because the new government refused to allocate the final $2billion for the project to fund the construction upgrades to the 1960s era asbestos-riddled and earthquake-damaged Port facilities at both ends of the strait. Their aim is clearly to degrade the publicly owned service and then privatise the assets like NZ conservative governments always try to do!
Another concern here is that the other large (private operated) ro-ro ferry operator "Bluebridge" were actually relying on the port upgrades as their own facilities are falling apart, and they were part of a shared use agreement with kiwirail for the new facilities!
When Aratere finally throws in the towel we will have no rail link at all between the islands, which is a really scary future for us!
Interesting - creating a private reserve for the rich and infamous?? But I am paranoid - these incidents are increasing exponentially. I am forced to ask - has the world gone nuts or as usual do money and elite interests rule the day??
.
@@dianealden9293 The former right wing government led by Teflon John Key was the template for Trump's personality politics, so New Zealand has a particularly acute case of elite interests being placed ahead of public interests, including skyrocketing homelessness as the housing market was fully opened to foreign ownership under the Don Key. Quite simply, much of New Zealand got sold off, and the aging infrastructure is now (very predictably) falling apart. But that's ok, normal people got a $6 a week tax cut, that's worth it right? They will buy a couple of rust buckets from anywhere, put new paint on them, and leave it to the next Left government to start all over again with trying to get new fit-for-purpose ships. Read up on the HMNZS Charles Upham to see how well that is likely to turn out - the Southern Ocean is not to be trifled with.
Well said, all true too.
Cancelling those two fine ships was an insane move. Yes it required a lot of capital works ashore but those facilities would then have been good for 100 years or more.
Yeah, nah bro. Yeah,nah.
No one knows what the shoreside costs were going to be - thats why it got stopped. 2 Billion is your guess only. Even Grant 'I like to spend' Robertson was concerned by the never ending price escalation. KiwiRail Board and Management have acted unprofessionally, in my view, on the replacement project. Shoreside costs should have been nailed and funded before the Ships ordered.
Its great to be on deck heading through the Tory Channel and into Picton, I've sailed across Cook Strait many times on Bluebridge. Proud to be a New Zealander.
The ferries in the Philippines are in much worse shape than these Kiwi ferries. Please investigate the condition of inter island ferries of the Montenegro, 2go and Starlight ferry lines. Linked to that is the enormous loss of life with the Dona Paz sinking, with over 4000 people losing their lives. There were no prosecutions of the owners Sulpicio Lines.
You mention Sulpicio Lines. New Zealand also fails in not prosecuting irresponsible entities, Russian Liner Lermontov, Air New Zealand Mt Erebus?
We visited Picton earlier this year and it was wonderful. We watched those ferries arrive and depart throughout the day. 65 years ago, I worked for the Washington State Ferries and they had many of the same financial issues then. Nothing is new under the sun. . .
We live on Whidbey Island, and I work on the mainland 3 days a week. One of our 144 car vessels is on loan to another route, leaving us with an older 90 car ferry, just as our busy summer season kicks in. That plus crewing issues can really mess up our service times.
Well, look north a bit to BC Ferries. Similar problems.
As WA state resident, the issue here is down to 1) Single source supplier Vigor Marine. 2) Willful blindness on the condition of the vessels. 3) Politicians(led by Governor) who have become ship designers. 4) Going back to 1) a resistance to letting contracts out to Gulf coast builders who can build cheaper(within US pricing).
I love in NZ and love your chancel. Was so surprised to see you cover this story. Your reporting is so much more thorough than our own news. Tku for the great article. Yes come to NZ, I recommend you fly 😂
I appreciate how you report various incidents. Thanks. I was so glad these videos and reports began. Thanks a bunch. ❤
Kiwi here with a few things to mention:
- Aratere is a real dog. People here often refer to it as "the floating turd" (or similar). Over the years it has had rudders & propellers fall off, multiple steering faults and countless engine failures (of varying severity). Even when the Aratere was new it had plenty of issues, but over it's lifespan it has consistently demonstrated noticeably poorer reliability than the other ships in the Interislander fleet. The Cook Straight is often incredibly rough water and the ferries are worked very hard, as you mentioned. Similarly, Wellington often has extremely fierce winds, which leads to issues docking.
- The Finance and Transport Ministers cancelled the order for new ferries because they were trying to look tough on fiscal matters after an election where their incompetence on fiscal policy caused repeated embarrassment, with significant portions of their policy platform being shown to be based on fantasy numbers. The new ferries were to be built in South Korea. The $3 Billion cost is misleading as this figure also included significant work on the docks at Wellington and Picton, including building a large breakwater in Wellington Harbour to allow ferries to dock safely in very rough sea states. With the ongoing requirement for the ferries to be able to carry rail, any new ferry has to be a bespoke design. This means added cost, which the rival company (Bluebridge) who doesn't carry rail cars doesn't have to deal with. The cancellation had nothing whatsoever to do with the actual ferry/harbour project.
- Picton is pronounced "pick ton".
- Marlbourough Sounds are very dangerous waters and extremely tidal - very little room for error. You might be familiar with the sinking of the MS Mikhail Lermontov there. If not, it's worth looking up.
In essence NZ can't afford nothing ,but there are those who want to chuck some more billions on the Dept clock ,put it on the Tab , she'll be right Trev !
she was called by crews as the lemontere
@@thatdave86 Cancelling the order is a false economy and will cost far more money (and possibly lives).
@@thatdave86afford $3B for tax cuts to landlords. And then tick up $12B for tax cuts 😆
@@user-bw4jm1bv1i so what are they wanting to achieve with that ?
Does it mean that a government doesn't need to keep supplying houses because that's costing the Taxpayer ?
Even if the rents will be high which would also creep into the government housing the supply of housing is on the landlords ?
Aratere was lengthened in 2011 and snapped a shaft as well as lost her screw in 2013, poor girl can not catch a break!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m a Kiwi living in Western Australia…….the Cook Straight has always been a scary rough sea passage ….. and not one to be trifled with…especially with I’ll equipped ships……..watch this space👍🇦🇺❤️
Hi Sal, my Name is Tony Mckeage I am a Kiwi (New Zealander) I am 67 years old, when I was at school the main ferry was from Lyttleton to Wellington that was an overnight ferry which sailed up the east coast of the south island to wellington, in 1967 the ferry sank in the entrance of wellington to harbour with a significant loss ot life, it is a weekend I remember very well. I was at primary school at the time! The 3 Kiwi rail ferries that ply the cook strait between Picton and Wellington are not the only ones that ply the straits, blue bridge own 2-3 small ferries which mainly transport livestock and trucks, The Awatere is the only ferry owned by Kiwirail, I believe she is an ex spanish ferry which was bought 2nd hand and later lengthened, I have crossed on the awatere and other Kiwirail ferries numerous times, 1st as a kiwi who lived in the south island, visiting the north island on a regular basis! I moved to the North island in 1995 to (get a haircut and a new job) the 1st line in a popular NZ song! I have traveled on the ferries numerous times since then. Cooks Strait is a very rough passage with very strong currents and changeable weather. The ferry service has been run down for years mainly due to the private competition and the need to keep a strong and reliable service, the route has a number of issues, 1) the narrow channel through Tory channel and 2) the location of Picton roughly the same distance as wellington in a north south direction. There has been an alternative route proposed which would take significant time of both the sea and road with a new terminal to be built north of cape campbell on the south island, The final nail was, the Labour party had plans to replace the ferries and the terminals, with a significantly better ferry fleet, when the National Party was elected The new government and it's prime minister, who had been CEO of Air NZ cancelled Labours plan and left the Kiwi rails ferries in a very poor state I hope this helps
Dear Sal,
The city of Gothenburg (my home town) started experimenting with electric ferries some years back, and evidently these Norwegian built (and designed) ferries have been a success so all the local ferries will soon be electric (not sure how many there but it must be over ten) . All being catamarans, if my source is correct.
Most just run across the river, but some (including the first ones) were used to communicate into the archipelago, north and south of the river Göta älv, which gave the city its name: Göteborg.
STENA is based in town, and I even talked to its founder Sten A. Olson, when I was a firefighter in the local shipyards (most of them gone by now). He started as a scrap merchant, and after a while started to scrap ships (os selling ships to other scrappers), but someone told him that if you keep the ships in running order you'll get much better pay for the ships, and so he started to local ferry line to Fredrikshavn in Denmark.
And now its a global ferry company, but still handling scrap metal!
This ferry is a lemon, right from day one. In the Oxford concise book of Lemons there is a picture of the Aratere on the front cover. I would say that The Cook strait is one of the roughest and most expensive, to cross, bodies of water in the world. Having lived on the south coast of the North Island all my life and crossed the strait lots of times I have seen some atrocious weather, we are very exposed to massive southerly gales.
Washington's ferries are part of the state highway system, and we've had many shenanigans with that pot of money over the last 30 years. On top of that until a couple years ago new ones had to be built in Washington. They've bought 7 new boats in the last 10 ish years, but retired more than that. I think 4 more are on contract, and the 3 biggest are being overhauled and converted to battery hybrid (not helping capacity in the meantime) But they also just gave another the gold stack band for being 50 years old.
Sal would have a field day with the history of the Mosquito Fleet. Especially set against the recent trend of the old routes coming back for mobility as traffic gets worse.
A NZ inter island Ferry sank near Wellington harbor in 1968 with considerable loss of life.
Rode this ferry route a decade ago with my family headed back to north island. The Cook Straight was blowing a hell of a gale and that was one interesting ride.
Good to see this channel doing well. Nice job as always….Tom
Thank you for your wise words. Please tell our Politicians!
You are welcome here in NZ. Thank you for your report.
On a few trips to New Zealand, I have ridden the Interislander several times between 1999 and 2003. and have a friend on S. Island who has ridden them more than I have. The only other way to travel between South Island and North Island is by air. The airport in Wellington is known to pilots as one of the most dangerous to approach (mountains, ocean, wind issues and runway length.) So those ferries are indeed essential. It's an interesting ride, as you can see from that chart of the route, and beautiful as well, but Cook Straiit itself is not an easy stretch of water. NZ should not have gone for larger ferries, of course, because that fjord-like entrance to Picton is not ideal for huge ships. Bigger is not always (ever?) better.
I traveled regularly on that ferry. They had several issues when it was commissioned requiring refit on the propulsion systems. They replaced both engines and much of the steering etc. She was then found to be too short, so they cut her in half and put a significant additonal section with many other modifications. The seas around the cook strait are very rough and tough on shipping. These ferries get a very hard life as a result.
The most famous and deadly ferry was on the enterance to wellington harbour. The Wahine (Wa-hin-ne) suffered one of the most severe storms and got pushed onto the rocks loosing her steering and part power. I glad that this is not the case with the Aratere.
Never Sailed on the New Ferries, infact in all my Years living in NZ ive never heard of such an incident ever occurring. This would have been big news in New Zealand as this vital sea & Land connection can affect the transportation of Goods & Services between the 2 islands. Thankyou for the explaination & update Sal.
There's been repeated failures every five to ten years. This is the first one to result in a grounding but Aratere has been a problem child since her introduction 25+ years ago.
@@someonesomewhere1240 When the Rangitira Christchurch to Wellington Service ran. We we're so happy going over night, loved that memory of being on a Ship.
When I was there, it was pronounced Pick-tun. We took a trip on the mailboat to all the out lying islands.
Your intro made me think you were angling for a consulting gig in NZ.
Your outro confirmed it 🤣
Very interesting. New Zealand is incredible.
Its not well known, but this vessel got into a 40 degree roll near kapiti(avoiding the terewhiti rip during a storm.
Wonderfull service regarding the maritime support during dDay Thank you!
Hi Sal. I'm here in New Zealand, Taranaki. They were going to replace them but our new National government pulled the plug on our new vessels, costing the tax payer 200 million in contract default. Great old vessels doing a big job in tough conditions. I'm ex deep sea fishermen with experience in the Cook Straight and many crossings in these ferry's. The pilots are the best and crews very capable.
Remind me why Governments should buy billion dollar corporations operating for profit, free gibs?
While national is a disgrace, that deal was corrupt like all deals between politicians and corporations.
Which party signed such a large default contract, how much tax dollars were being skimmed and how many board of director positions was labour promised in exchange for buying a private company gibs?
The $700 million turned into upwards of three billion dollars, Labour and their supporters can not understand budgets and that's why Labour left us with HUGE debt as they were escorted out the door.
National have FAR more experience in business management, most of Labour are career politicians Vs Nationals much much higher business experience.
TBH kind of sick of seeing people attempting to make out this incident was Nationals fault, Labour were in power for six years and didn't get the ferries replaced, it's more than likely staff that would vote for Labour that have made the screw ups that caused the issue - just like the power pylon incident.
I'm ex RNZN & a lot of experience in aircraft and automotive industry, it's scary how many people are out there who really shouldn't have hands on tools without multiple safety inspections after they've been in there and wrecked stuff.
Take a look at our Navy frigates of similar age - how many issues do you see there? Vs the civilian ferries literally breaking down multiple times on the delivery voyage & multiple potentially catastrophic failures over their lifetimes, it's the crew & maintenance crew combined with the operational budget set by management that causes these issues.
The maintenance that failed was by the way organized while Labour were in power - so if any govt party is at fault.......
National are looking to replace the board at Kiwirail by the way, they understand the results of poor management - unlike Labour voters.
@@TheLabLimitedthank you for an excellent comment. This is exactly as I see the situation.
@@TheLabLimited Bingo !!!
Bet Cook Strait is a rough crossing given the currents
One of the roughest in the world. There's some good videos of bad crossings. Many crossings get canceled due to bad weather, big swells
@@BrickNewton the crossing from the North of Scotland to Orkney and Shetland is brutal, the crossing between North and South New Zealand must be a sick bag special also
Britain is also incredibly sea blind, >96% of all our exports and imports go by sea but political awareness of naval or maratime issues is essentially zero, crazy given our history!
The British government has been captured by the financial sector - and given up on actually “making” things.
Your pronunciation was spot on!! Very little in the media here in New Zealand about what actually happened, just a lot of political nonsnese and complaining, so really nice to get your report.
We in British Columbia have the same problem with a aging fleet and frequent brake downs. We are also going green with some new electric ferry more wasted taxpayer dollars. Could not stay with the tried and true CNG or diesel. Can’t wait to see what these will cost to keep running in 5 years time.
Thanks for covering this from another person down in NZ. Your pronunciations were not too bad! It's a foreign language so you cannot be blamed, haha. Although you made a mistake at the end, dont lump us into the same continent as those bloody Aussies!
Thanks Sal for your informative video. Most people dont realise how bad this could have been. As a local who has spent both work and recreational time in the sounds, an oil spill would have destroyed millions in marine farming. The entrance to Tory channel is narrow with strong currents and extremely dangerous in bad weather, as well as the entrance to Wellington harbour. If this had happened at the wrong time, itwould have been a total loss situation.
I have been to New Zealand twice. Back in the late 70's
Being ex NZNavy and current marine rescue crew, I have been dejected at the state of the marine environment. 99% of our trade comes via the oceans. After the Rena, we still don’t have a decent off shore capable marine salvage tug in the entire country. I was offered stupid money to go back to the navy a couple of months ago, pity when I left in the late 90’s the pay was below minimum wage and crew were never the priority. The marine rescue boots on the water are volunteers and have to fundraise for everything. So much for a first world island nation.
My son has been in for 3 years. Quite well paid although fully qualified in his trade he has yet to be used in that trade because there's insufficient resources. Basically he has to find work to keep himself occupied.
Thanks Sal Learnt more here than all the news media in NZ as good as they are. I have lived here 70 years and its the first time I knew that the ARATERE went through Queen Charlotte sounds
Problem here now Sal, is the country is short of money after the last labour government left us with a massive deficit. We don't have a lot of manufacturing here any more, as like so many other countries we now rely on China. Of the 5 million people here, probably only 4 million are working, the rest being retired or on some sort of benefit, so it's going to take a while for the economy to recover, especially after the major storm damage to infrastructure, farming etc recently. We are struggling to maintain and repair what we have now, so major purchases like purpose built ships, are, if we are being honest,- not really affordable. We have always had problems with the Cook strait ferries, with numerous companies having a crack at running them, having problems with chartered vessels then giving up. Two of these were a large high speed cat and fast monohull (vehicle and passenger capable) trying to compete, but they suffered breakdowns and speed/wake restrictions through the sounds which negated the speed advantage over the regular ferries.
When we moved from the South Island to the North Island in 1958 the main ferry was the Maori, (built 1953) and cars were craned into holds and on the rear decks, so things are much better now. I don't think things really recovered after the Wahine sank, as she was only 2 yrs old at the time, then ships started having to be chartered to fill the gap. They were even having to fly cars across for a while in Bristol Freighters . Bluebridge ferries have had their problems competing with the govt owned Kiwi Rail, (plus a few mechanical issues), but seem to be running ok at the moment. It's a tough environment as PowhiroMus mentioned, being a gap between 2 oceans, so the ships often get a thrashing.
Oh heck yeah, gotta get my shipping news
The Alaska State Ferries are seeing similar issues with outdated vessels
We have a similar situation in the Orkney Isles, off the top of Scotland. The inter-island ferrries are between 30 and 40 years old, and politics has stopped them being replaced for the last 15 years at least.
Fun Fact: The Cook Strait Ferry route is officially part the New Zeland state highway road network connecting State Highway 1 that runs the entire length of the country.
awesome report well researched
You will be welcomed warmly in Australia and New Zealand.
he sure will, we had Drach down here last year so Sal would be an interesting carry-on from that visit.
There is a second InterIsland ferry service called Bluebridge which sails the same route. Also has older vessels but seem to run with less isdues
Bluebridge is freight only (no passengers or light vehicles).
@@allangibson8494no it’s not. The public can use Bluebridge.
@@allangibson8494 I've been on Bluebridge with my car.
@@allangibson8494 Incorrect. Bluebridge takes passengers, private vehicles, trucks etc (not trains). I travelled on the Strait Feronia from Wellington to Picton with my car about a month ago
@@danielayers That must be a recent change - they didn’t do that five years ago when I last did the crossing.
Thank you for the explanation, Hank Schrader. ^_^
Thanks Sal. I was a passenger on these ferries in the mid 2000's. That straight can get really rough at times because it becomes a vortex, so its not any ferry design that can handle those conditions. Also, I'm sure the Finance Minister is completely competent to determine what the parameters of the new ferries design should be and the life cycle costs of those vessels, after all the Minister is a Politician, that doesn't need a Marine Engineering Degree because their postion automatically makes them all knowing.
And when the cheap route is taken and fails, the Company will be blamed for taking the cheap route.
Thanks for this video. It’s much more balanced than the sensationalist local media reporting of the incident. I’m conflicted about the decision to cancel the IReX replacements due to cost blow out. On one hand buying two MUCH larger ferry’s to replace 3 smaller ones would likely end up being a costly mistake. Not least because those two huge ferry’s would be forced to take the 1hr longer route that Aratere has been using recently, but also because numerical resilience is reduced. On the other hand, procuring 3 new smaller (non rail enabled BTW according to the ministerial advice) ferry’s now will likely end up costing as much as the cancelled project, and fail to deliver efficiencies to the inter island rail network.
Thanks
Hey Sal, great video. You should consider contacting that transportation minister. With your experience, you might have a new career or a great high-level part-time consulting gig!
Great idea
Great content. Those maps of shipping routes look great. You should come over to NZ. One of my mates cousins ( we are only have about 2 degrees of separation down here) used to be on the bridge of the boat that went down. He always has good yarns about the state of the whole outfit. Cheers, Sean.
I was listening to Capt. Jerry Hendricks (USN Retired) on Hugh Hewitt this AM talking about the same problems here in the US. We have let our ship building industry wither to almost nothing at a time when we need to be increasing the size of our navy...yesterday! We have potential ship building facilities on the west coast but the political apparatus and the environmental crazies make it very difficult to develop the needed infrastructure. Then there is the problem of not enough skilled shipyard workers to do the work. It takes 5 years to train a skilled worker to be able to do the work.
Jerry was on the panel with me on Friday.
@@wgowshipping You should do an interview with Hewitt sometime.
Great breakdown video (as usual) Sal.
The KiwiRail ferry saga (and it is a massive saga) is on the news almost daily. The previous Labour+ coalition government had ordered and deposited for 2 new 'Mega Ferries'. As l understand it ther have already started build... This grand plan was a total overkill, and all the maritime authorities were against it. Luckily, the new National+ coalition canceled this as 2/3 of the costs was ports to accept these, total new wharf and associated facilities (on both sides of the straight), new tugboats to be able to handle the new ships +, +, +... We should have bought 3 same sized (as current) vessels at half the price. Now NZs water bound highway is in a crisis. As a side (if you haven't already) look up how many issues and failures the Aratere has had in it's lifetime, starting from its first year in operation.
You could always stay with my family when you make it to NZ. Queenstown and Christchurch is where we are based. Si.
Your pronunciation of Aratere is spot on. :-) (Kiwi in Aussie)👍
Thanks!