Interislander confirms Easter sailings

The Interislander has confirmed all passengers booked to sail over Easter will be able to cross the Cook Strait during the holiday weekend.
Kaitaki has been out of service since March 4 due to a gearbox issue, and will not be operational until at least April 10, the company says.
“Over the past few days, we have been in touch with about 8200 passengers booked on Kaitaki to travel from April 1 up to April 10 – Easter Monday,” says Interislander executive general manager Walter Rushbrook.
“While all passengers booked over the Easter weekend have been assured of a sailing, we’ve advised a small percentage of passengers travelling earlier in April we have had to cancel their sailing, with a full refund, asking them to contact us to re-book at alternative times if they still want to travel.”
He says by increasing other ferry sailings and taking a number of other steps, they’ve been able to advise more than 90 per cent of Kaitaki passengers booked up till the end of Easter they can cross the Strait as planned, although some have been offered different times to their original booking.
To help these passengers, Interislander have employed additional call centre staff and are holding all available capacity on other ferry sailings for those who have been cancelled.
“Restoring Kaitaki has been a complex job. In the near future, we expect to be able to announce a date when Kaitaki will return to service.
“Easter is an important holiday break for New Zealanders and many rely on our services to cross the Strait. Our people have been working around the clock to manage existing bookings and arranging additional ferry sailings to accommodate customers who have bookings with us,” says Walter.
In mid-March, Interislander paused the ability to make new bookings for the coming weeks to prioritise space those already booked with them.
“Despite our best efforts, the issues with Kaitaki have disrupted travel for many people, and we want to apologise to our passengers for that,” says Walter.
“Our people will be in touch soon with those passengers booked on Kaitaki later in April to confirm their travel arrangements. We recommend those passengers wait to be contacted by us in order to avoid waiting for help through the call centre.”