How the Interislander’s Kaitaki ferry narrowly avoided disaster

The first sign something wasn’t right with the Interislander’s Kaitaki ferry was when the lights flickered, but it wasn’t until life jackets were being handed out that fear crept in. One passenger said the Wahine
disaster was on the mind of every Kiwi on board.

At 4.55pm on Saturday KiwiRail advised Maritime New Zealand the ferry had reported engine problems.

Ten minutes later the ship issued a mayday call with 864 people on board. All four engines had shut down in the middle of a roaring southerly in the Cook Strait.

KiwiRail has since revealed this was caused by a leak in the engine cooling system, which resulted in a loss of pressure.

This was detected by sensors and the engines shut down automatically to protect them from overheating.

Hundreds of people on board a ship drifting towards Wellington’s rocky shoreline was a nightmare scenario for those who’ve spent the last year battling to keep the Interislander’s ageing and increasingly unreliable fleet running.

KiwiRail’s two new mega ferries, worth half a billion dollars, can’t come fast enough.

All hands on deck

Regional harbourmaster Grant Nalder was at home in Newlands thinking about firing up the pizza oven when he got the call from his staff that the Kaitaki was in trouble.

He hit the phones and made his way to the harbour signal station overlooking Breaker Bay.

Nalder’s voice was calm and steady on the other end of the phone as he fielded calls about what had happened.

“They were drifting, they’ve got an anchor down, and they declared a mayday,” he told the Herald on Saturday evening.

A mayday is an internationally recognised distress signal and made it clear just how dire the situation was.

Nalder said a mayday call was the most serious of radio calls and was only made if people’s lives were in imminent danger.

“It was a scenario that we’d talked about, but never really wanted to see. It wasn’t good.”

A mass rescue plan was activated and a special response team was stood up.

Six vessels made their way to the scene – the Interislander’s Aratere ferry, Lady Elizabeth IV, two harbour tugs, a pilot boat, and a fishing boat.

Five rescue helicopters were called, three of which were brought to Wellington Airport and two were on standby in Palmerston North and Taranaki.

Police were in charge of the onshore operation to find and take care of passengers and crew if necessary.

A cordon was put in place at Owhiro Bay Pde leading towards Red Rocks.

Wellington Cross Country Vehicle Club, one of the largest 4WD clubs in the country, was called in to help.

Club captain Duncan Grocott said about 30 vehicles made their way to the south coast and 50 remained on standby.

He grabbed blankets and woollen hats, while others filled up flasks of hot water.

There is no road around the coast to get closer to where the ferry was, only a track.

“The track constantly changes with the weather at various locations around the coast,” Grocott said.

It was an uneasy feeling waiting and wondering how they were going to get people off the ship before it hit the rocks, he said.

Transport Minister Michael Wood had spent the day out in the community dealing with the Auckland floods.

Wood is also the MP for Mt Roskill – an area badly hit by the deluge.

He had spent the previous night sorting out Waka Kotahi after the transport agency’s social media team clocked off at 8pm just as the rain was wreaking havoc.

By 5.30pm on Saturday Wood was in a Zoom meeting with Waka Kotahi officials to discuss the Auckland crisis.

The meeting was interrupted by his office, which KiwiRail had alerted about the Kaitaki.

Wood was given a more detailed briefing once the meeting concluded and spoke to KiwRail’s chief executive.

He immediately pivoted from the crisis in Auckland to the emerging crisis in Wellington with grave concern.

Wood met with Maritime New Zealand yesterday and is meeting with KiwRail today.

The ship is steadied

Lorna Johnson was on the Kaitaki’s 2.15pm sailing from Picton with her husband and two grandchildren.

The conditions were rough, which is not unusual for the Cook Strait, and passengers were vomiting well before a mayday call was issued.

She said the first sign that something was wrong was when the lights flickered.

“It suddenly went very quiet and I looked at my husband and he looked at me and I said- ‘have the engines stopped?’”

Soon after, a piercing alarm sounded. The passengers were familiar with this sound after completing a drill less than half an hour earlier.

But this time the captain announced over the loudspeaker it was a real emergency.

Passengers were told the engines had lost power and as a precaution, they should gather at their assembly points.

Johnson said everyone was calm. Then there was a further announcement that passengers should put on their life jackets.

“At that point, people did start to look alarmed. I certainly started to feel alarmed at that point because they don’t tell you to put the life jackets on for nothing.”

The Kaitaki’s anchors made a mechanical grating sound as they were lowered to steady the ship, Johnson said.

The ferry drifted about one nautical mile before its anchors managed to stabilise it in 30m of water off Sinclair Head.

An announcement was made over the loudspeaker that the anchors were holding and help was on the way.

“That was very reassuring because we were all thinking at that point if we end up in a lifeboat in the middle of the Cook Strait in a 100km/h southerly, that’s not a nice prospect,” Johnson said.

“I would say every single Kiwi on that boat, and myself included, all had the Wahine in our heads because we all knew where we were, we all knew there was a southerly, we could all see the coast quite clearly.”

The sinking of the Wahine ferry in 1968 was New Zealand’s worst modern maritime disaster. Fifty-one people lost their lives that day.

Below deck on the Kaitaki, the crew had managed to isolate the leak in the engine cooling system and restore power to the ship.

At about 7pm all four engines were able to be restarted and passengers were told the ferry could slowly make her way back to the harbour.

The Kaitaki arrived in Wellington at about 9pm accompanied by the other vessels keeping watch over her.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Investigations launched

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission [TAIC] has opened an inquiry into the incident and is appealing for ferry passengers and residents of Wellington’s South Coast who have videos or photographs of the events to get in touch.

A team of investigators with expert knowledge of marine operations, engineering and maintenance have been appointed.

They will start by interviewing the ship’s crew, incident responders, Wellington harbour authorities, and other witnesses. The commission will also inspect the ship and obtain all relevant records and electronically recorded data.

Maritime New Zealand has also been looking into the incident. Investigators and maritime officers have been on-board the vessel and have been talking to its crew.

The Kaitaki will not return to service until Lloyds Register Class Society, an independent third party, has inspected the ship and issued an assurance report to Interislander and Maritime New Zealand.

Interislander executive general manager Walter Rushbrook said the leak has been repaired and all other parts of the engine cooling system have been checked and tested.

“Safety is our number one priority and we will not resume sailing until we are certain it is safe to do so.”

The Maritime Union has called for the investigation into the engine failure to be prioritised – but TAIC has said it is at least 18 months away from any conclusions.

The union’s Wellington branch secretary Jim King said no concerns had been raised about the incident from members at this stage and he commended the crew for their calm approach.

There have been reports of another power issue on board the Kaitaki six days before Saturday night’s mayday call.

Interislander operations manager Peter Mathews said this was a minor electrical issue that was quickly rectified.

“There was no loss of engine power and the ship was not drifting or immobilised at any stage.”

The issue was unrelated to Saturday’s incident, Mathews said.

Questions have also been raised about the physical capability of the harbour tug boats to assist the Kaitaki should they have been needed, especially considering the treacherous conditions.

Nalder said the tugs were very powerful but were designed to help ships inside the harbour rather than the open water.

“I have no doubt had it been required, they would have made every effort to secure the ship and move it but given some of the factors they were facing, it’s a little bit unknown how successful that might have been.”

An ageing and unreliable fleet

The current ferries in the Interislander fleet are nearing the end of their 30-year working lives.

The Herald has previously revealed one in five Interislander ferries were cancelled in the 2022 financial year and a third of services departed late in what has been called a “horror run”.

KiwiRail has been juggling the ageing ships and their various faults leaving the Interislander with just one passenger ship at one point.

The Valentine was leased to at least secure the important freight connection between the two islands.

Wood said the Government recognised the crucial role the Cook Strait ferries played in New Zealand’s supply chain and that many Kiwis will be concerned by Saturday night’s breakdown of the Kaitaki.

The Transport Minister blamed previous governments for failing to plan for the long term by neglecting crucial infrastructure investments.

He pointed to the significant investment the Government has made for the Interislanfer’s new mega ferries and portside infrastructure.

The first of the two mega ferries is due in 2025, but the existing Interislander ferries are struggling to maintain the service until then.

The fact that Bluebridge’s new ferry called the Connemara arrived in Wellington from Europe the day after the Interislander’s mayday call added salt to the wound.