Comments on: Swell Ferry Crossing

By: Gary

Gary — Sat, 05 May 2007 21:17:22 +0000

I think one of the worst crossings was encountered by the Aramoana in the 60’s when she could not get into Wellington so she headed south and went to Lyttleton.

Cheers
Gary

By: Gary

Gary — Sat, 05 May 2007 21:07:31 +0000

Hi,
This sort of weather is not unusual for Cook Strait. I sailed on the Suilven and she cwas great sea ship. Did rock and roll but hey don’t they all. Someone mentioned the Vomit Comment was this is in relation to the Railways Fast Ferry. There also was a mention about the Suilven not carrying stock when in fact she did in trucks.
Cheers
Gary

By: Graham

Graham — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 02:05:45 +0000

i can say that i’ve seen worse but with the “Vomit comit” i’ve been on and seen very few not to chuckup. i’m not one of those who did. i’d found the piviting point in the inter-islander some years ago and it was i think was the “Aramoana”., the aranui did a rough crossing one day but i’d missed out that one. please don’t forget the “Aratika”., so there must be a few out there that has done the “Rough” crossings in their days.

By: Brian Harmer

Brian Harmer — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:45:53 +0000

Sorry, I meant Noizyboy.

By: Brian Harmer

Brian Harmer — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:45:14 +0000

Leanne … how dishonest of them. As post from Lazyboy above indicates, that storm was a full two years earlier. Furthermore, the Suilven was a general purpose RoRo freight carrier, and not a livestock ship. Their livestock ship was the Straitsman.

By: Leanne

Leanne — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 19:48:41 +0000

I Googled “Suilven” and found this article with a still from the above footage:
18 September 2004: Australian protest group Animal Liberation NSW circulates images of a livestock carrier ship, Strait Shipping’s Suilven, leaving Wellington, New Zealand, in appalling weather conditions.
http://www.naturewatch.org/campaigns/australia/News_Views.asp

By: Brian Harmer

Brian Harmer — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 09:30:53 +0000

That’s not the Interislander and not even the Bluebridge ferry. I am fairly sure it is a small coastal freighter called “Suilven”

By: CJ

CJ — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 08:26:30 +0000

Now add a vodka and Lime and see how the trip would go.Was always good fun on the Arahura and Aratika…:-) Wellingtonians enjoy the thrill of watching mad people do the crossing…note usually not Wellingtonians..hehehhe

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:04:53 +0000

jebus, that looks scary…

By: Ric Chan

Ric Chan — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:00:48 +0000

Wooohoooo, jest lerv a decent rock n roll.

I wish I was onboard.

By: Another Day on the Cook Strait

Another Day on the Cook Strait — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 23:22:25 +0000

I have lived in Wellington 5 years and I would never, ever, in a million years take the ferry. They “sail” in all kinds of weather and what is supposed to take 3 hours, can take up to 8 on a day like this. You think they would have some sort of sense in their head to risk peoples lives like this!

By: Lori

Lori — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 06:32:15 +0000

Makes me feel sick just watching it

By: Rod Drury > The Ferry

Rod Drury > The Ferry — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 02:09:03 +0000

[...] Repost from SpareRoom because this is so good. Looks like the BlueBridge. [...]

By: noizyboy

noizyboy — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 02:05:21 +0000

that's weird. I remember seeing the video of this when I was working at MetService. It was shot by an ex-workmate of mine, who also added some stills to this MetService page that goes into the details about the storm the ferry was passing through (scroll to the bottom for the pix). I assume the video has done the rounds, and someone has decided to share with all via YouTube...