Aratere continues to be plagued by delays

Cook Strait ferry Aratere. File photo / NZ Herald

Technical problems at the Wellington ferry terminal have caused further delays for the Interislander ferry Aratere.

The ferry's sailing yesterday afternoon was delayed and a return sailing this morning was cancelled after a cable snapped on the linkspan that connects the port to rail ships yesterday.

Passengers on this morning's sailings were rebooked on later sailings.

Port operator Centreport, which owns and operates the linkspan, was due to carry out repairs this morning.

However, issues with the linkspan caused this afternoon's Aratere sailing to be delayed slightly.

The sailing was now underway and there were no issues with the ferry, which was plagued by technical problems earlier this month.

"It's just the ports company's infrastructure that's the problem at the moment," an Interislander spokeswoman said.

Centreport was not available for comment.

The delays come after passenger sailings of the Aratere were cancelled for more than a week earlier this month while engine problems on the newly refurbished ship were addressed.

All three ferries were also briefly out of action earlier this month when the Kaitaki was delayed by more than four hours by an electrical fault, and the Arahura was delayed by a power cut at the Wellington terminal.

Interislander general manager Thomas Davis yesterday apologised to customers for the latest disruption, but said the circumstances were out of the control of Interislander.

"Centreport is working hard to resolve the problem as quickly as possible to enable us to load and unload our ships," he said.