The Interislander ferry, Kaiārahi (file). Photo: Interislander
The Interislander ferry dodged a bullet, after suffering a technical failure yesterday, the Maritime Union says.
The Kaiārahi experienced steering problems during its 3.30pm voyage across the Cook Strait to Picton.
The vessel returned to Wellington as a precaution, docking at 10.05pm.
A North Island man who was on board the sailing that was turned back told RNZ that, after the ferry arrived back in Wellington, passengers could not collect their bags for more than 30 minutes.
Saturday afternoon, KiwiRail said the problem that led to the ferry being turned back was now repaired.
The vessel was returning to service and staff would contact affected customers to organise travel as soon as possible, Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy said.
Tug contract end a concern, with ferry issues ongoing
The incident proved the government should not cut the contract on an emergency tug, as announced last month, Maritime Union national secretary Carl Findlay said.
The government said it had decided to end the contract for the emergency tug, the MMA Vision, in February - months ahead of time - saying the costs outweigh the benefits.
"We need the [MMA] Vision available because it's the only rescue operation that we have available," Findlay said.
"Chris Bishop has recently come out and said he's going to cut funding, which is absolutely crazy."
Findlay said the funding for the vessel was very small.
He was open to meeting with the Transport Minister Chris Bishop to discuss saving the tug.
"We should write to him directly, but in saying that too, he seems like a reasonable sort of a guy, he should come and talk to the experts in the industry, and we represent that work force, we're quite happy to talk to him," he said.
In the meantime, Findlay said he wanted answers.
"It's ongoing, what's happening with the Interislander ferries and it's well documented, so again, I don't understand why he wants to cut the funding on this very important piece of New Zealand marine security.
Wellington harbourmaster Grant Nalder earlier told RNZ crew still had "full control of the wheel", despite what he said was a "technical problem with the steering".
"As they were approaching Tory Channel and did their regular checks, they found something was behaving oddly with the steering.
"They didn't go through Tory Channel, just went out into Cook Strait to test what it was. After doing that, they decided they were going to return to Wellington."
Interislander's Duncan Roy earlier said technical staff would investigate the problem.
"The issue became apparent as part of standard procedures prior to entering Tory Channel and the return to Wellington was decided on as a safety precaution rather than sailing through the Sounds," he said.
"The appropriate authorities have been notified, and we will work with our passengers and freight customers to reschedule them."
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