The Interislander Ferry is the better known of the two ferry companies crossing the Cook Strait with their song engrained in the brain of many kiwis.

This will be an Interislander Ferry review solely, but I do compare the Interislander and Bluebridge here in addition to having a Bluebridge review here.

After reading this post, you’ll learn:

• How much it costs (plus the discount code I used)
• What the timings were versus expected
• What happened during the crossing
• What I liked and disliked on the crossing

BOOKING A TICKET ON THE INTERISLANDER WEBSITE

I booked my ferry (July 2020) the morning of the sailing on my phone. The booking experience is super straightforward, and there was no difficulty with making sure I was selecting the right direction (Picton to Wellington) etc.

Once you’ve got your criteria set, you’re shown the available sailings that day. They mention:

• the vessel you’re on
• departure time
• arrival time
• the lowest fare price

The only extra they try to upsell you on is the $55 lounge pass which wasn’t annoying.

Once you’ve entered your personal details (name, address, phone number), you’ll be taken to the page where you can enter a promo code.

You can easily find promo codes for 10% off your booking online. Try QCT1 and QCT2.

The ticket I wanted was $52 (for a walk-on passenger) which came down to $46.80 with the promo code. If you’re booking with your credit card, there’ll be a $2 booking fee on top.

When you receive your ticket via email (more or less instantaneous) take note of the check-in cutoff. For me that was 10:00 am for the 10.45 am departure.

CHECKING IN & BOARDING

The Interislander Ferry terminal in Picton is a short walk from the centre of town and is less than 500 metres from the i-Site.

I arrived just before 10.00 am and checked in right away. The terminal is nice. After checking in, you’re best to head upstairs where you can get in some last views of Picton (and the sunbeams through the windows in the morning are awesome). There’s heaps of seating, and a cafe that may well be open…it wasn’t when I was there (there’s food on board too).

There were no messages about boarding until 10.40 am (5 minutes before departure). It would have been nice to have gotten an update that they were running a little late.

The boarding process was super quick and we went straight to level 4, the main floor for passengers. There is a heap of seating on the Interislander vs. Bluebridge (the Bluebridge has a capacity of 350 passengers, while the Aratere (Interislander) I was on has 600 capacity…the Kaitaki ship can ferry 1400 people! But of course, during winter with the pandemic, we weren’t at capacity.

The seating was nice, with a variety of layouts, perfect for families.

At 11 am we took off (there was no mention of the late departure) and the announcements began.

CROSSING THE STRAIT + WHAT’S INCLUDED

The announcements were nothing out of the norm but they do give you a good rundown on what to expected.

If you’re looking to have a coffee on board, they emphasized they have trained baristas so I’m assuming it’s not shit coffee (I don’t drink it). There are also newspapers available, and they regularly mentioned their drinks selection.

There’s a cinema on board, though you’ll need to buy tickets for that (onboard). $5 for adults and $5 for children. The movie of the day for our journey was Call of the Wild.

Once we took off I noticed my mistake of sitting close to the playground. It’s just a nifty thing, but great for the kids. I went further away from the playground 🙂 Fortunately, I found a window seat that had a couple of power outlets! They’re not on most seats, but you’ll be able to find a few around.

As we exited Queen Charlotte Sound and entered the Tory Channel towards the Cook Strait I went for a nosey about. There’s two spots where you can get food, both on level four. They seemed to offer a different selection of food, so plan to look at both before deciding what you want.

We had a super flat day for sailing, so there weren’t any issues with sea sickness etc. as I made my way to the top floor. There was a decent amount of seating on the top deck (level 6) which on a summer day would be the best place to sit.

As you can see from some of the photos, the journey is super photogenic. There’s not much more to say, the journey was super simple.

I did find the disembarking process a little confusing. They get the passengers with vehicles to go down to the lower decks first, but for walk-on passengers, you’ve got no rush at all. They could have made this clearer as people were already lining up way too early…the staff were super patient with everyone asking the same questions.

Once we could disembark it’s not a long walk to the terminal. Once you’re on the road, if no one is there to pick you up you’ll see a shuttle bus on your right that’ll take you into town (opposite the baggage claim room). By the time I was on the bus it was 2.20 pm, which wasn’t too late after the 1.55 pm expected time but some acknowledgment would have been nice.

The shuttle bus takes you to Wellington Railway Station which is easy for everyone to get to where they’re going from there whether that’s to Wellington Airport, Cuba Street, or if you need to catch the train to the Kapiti Coast etc.

INTERISLANDER FERRY REVIEW: LIKES AND DISLIKES

LIKES

• Quick check-in process
• Convenient power outlets
• Reasonable food prices
• Nice variety of seating
• Clean facilities (including hand sanitizer dispensers)
• Lots of staff available

DISLIKES

• No mention that we were running late
• Wifi worked okay but 500MB cap is archaic
• They charge for the movie

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The Interislander is a solid service that’s sailed millions of passengers over the years. Check out this ad from way back in the 1990s!

If you’ve got any questions about this review of the Interislander ferry, drop a comment below or email jub@churnewzealand.com

Chur.