I remember an event back in 2015, while aboard a Lufthansa flight waiting to take off from Frankfurt Airport to head home after a particularly enjoyable event as a guest of Mercedes-Benz. The plane had just finished boarding, the air staff and ground staff said their goodbyes, shut the plane’s doors, and prepared for the vessel to taxi out to the runway.

Except, two hours later, we were still sitting in the same spot, having not moved an inch. Well, we might have moved about an inch to the right, because in the moments after the doors were shut, there was an unfamiliar thud and a momentary rocking motion from the front left of the plane. Instead of backing the passenger boarding bridge away from the plane as normal, the operator had somehow slammed it into the side of the plane. Our two-hours additional seat time was to ensure that the plane wouldn’t fall out of the sky as a result of this dull moment – I’m relaying this story right now, so obviously the flight made its journey with no further mishaps.

The point is, accidents like this can and do happen even at the busiest airport in Germany.

The memories came flooding back over my morning coffee, when I read the headline Interislander ferry Aratere damaged berthing into Wellington harbour. Good lord…

It could have been the feats of human achievement at the 2024 Paris Olympics … the new Local Water Done Well water reform … Wellington’s tumultuous Thorndon Quay roadworks project … The two US astronauts stuck aboard the International Space Station … No, of all the potential goings-on to talk about in today’s EDM, it’s the Interislander rearing its head again.

According to its statement, the ferry operator said the Aratere made low-speed contact with the link span (the dock ramp that allows vehicles to access the vessel) when docking yesterday afternoon in 43km/h winds. The result was a 40-minute delay to disembarking, a damaged link span, a gash in Aratere’s hull, cancelled sailings, and overnight repairs.

Mechanical breakdowns and the need for new vessels aside, navigational errors and parking lot dings should’ve long been ironed out in 100,000 crossings on the same route between the same two ports. Okay, as I said, mishaps like this can happen within the best operations. But, to the 106 passengers and 40 crew on board, as well as those affected by the cancellations, it’s just another all-too-frequent reminder of the fragility in New Zealand’s interisland ferry connection.

And I hope it is to the government and the KiwiRail board as well. I hope it’ll be treated with the same seriousness as the vessel’s grounding in June, and not quickly moved on from because it’s just a ‘minor incident’. It’ll be the first to deal with for Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy after his appointment last month to KiwiRail’s executive team. At the time, Roy’sappointment was said to “recognise the importance of the role of the Interislander in the organisation”.

He’s got a big task ahead of him, then. Nobody likes to be stuck aboard a damaged vessel.

Take care out there,

Gavin Myers
Editor