Crumbling Infrastructure …

On Feb 1st, the original plan was to take the Interislander Kaitake ferry to cross the Cook Strait to the North Island. Unfortunately, the ferry had broken down a few days ago – it completely lost power and very nearly hit the rocks. So quite a serious accident which understandably grounded the boat for a couple of days until the various agencies had finished their investigations. Which of course put us in a difficult situation – what to do next? Since the heavy rain event (together with cyclone Hale) had already taken out much of our planned route on the North Island anyway and the next cyclone (which would be named „Gabrielle“) was already forecast, we decided to cancel everything and improvise from now on. I contacted Omega and asked them whether I could return the car on the South Island, since we could not get across the Strait, but they insisted on drop-off at AKL. And since I’m a loser, I decided to play nice and stick to the rules. A real man with tattoos would just have dropped off the car in Queenstown, handed them the keys, and paid the fine. But I don’t have tattoos.

On the 31st, I finally get an email from InterIslander informing me that they have rebooked us for a night sailing on the 1st – which I had to decline. We were still jetlagged, so I’m not going to drive around Wellington asleep at the wheel at 3am in the morning. No fucking way, I’m not on vacation for that kind of shit. Btw, it was also interesting to see the lame excuses they were trying to invent – by now it should be quite clear that either their maintenance procedures are inadequate or the boats/engines are simply too old – or both. A shame given that this is a vital part of NZ’s infrastructure, especially for freight – but also shows that a lot of infrastructure in NZ is outdated, crumbling, a house built on (quick)sand … . Will be interesting to see how this plays out … .

Anyway, I canceled the sailing altogether and was able to book a spot with Bluebridge for the 9th instead. Quite lucky, actually, just a few hours later all spots for the rest of the year were taken. Crazy.

We decided to travel to Kaikoura to evade the rain and storm that was hitting the West Coast, Nelson, and Marlborough Sounds. Right decision!