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cook strait

Cook Strait rail ferries

'The floating bridge' - Cook Strait ferries

'An array of awful pies' - Cook Strait ferries

Rough crossings - Cook Strait ferries

Branding the Cook Strait ferries

Strikes and strandings - Cook Strait ferries

The Cook Strait ferries were vital to the flow of freight and passengers between the North and South islands (especially before the days of cheap air travel). Any interruptions, whether they were caused by bad weather, mechanical problems or strikes and lockouts, inevitably hit the headlines and touched raw nerves.

Fast ferries on Cook Strait

Vomit comets

The old fable about the tortoise and the hare was replayed on Cook Strait for a decade from 1994 as a series of fast ferries – dubbed ‘vomit comets’ – offered travellers a quick dash across the ditch.

Interislander stamp

Interislander stamp

The Interislander ferry features in The A to Z of New Zealand stamp series produced by New Zealand Post in 2008.

A Cook Strait crossing story