Service Updates

Very strong airfreight volumes again last night from Auckland to the South Island with resultant inbound delays in to all branches.

NZTA reports that crews are continuing work to assess the safety of several key South Island routes, clear slips and safely re-open roads as soon as conditions allow.

Lewis Pass

The Lewis Pass road (SH7) will likely be the main state highway route from Christchurch to Picton for several months, given the amount of work required to clear the large slips which have closed SH1.

It is clear that the roading issues in the upper South Island will take a considerable amount of time to resolve and the options we have in place will be with us for the foreseeable future. As this is now well documented, please assume that there will be ongoing delays to the interisland road network and with the connectivity from Christchurch to Nelson and Blenheim until further notice. Unless there are any other updates of significance that will impact the road network we will cease the inclusion of this in any future updates.

Interislander

All scheduled Aratere sailings have been cancelled until Sunday 20 Nov 2016 and freight that would have been carried by this vessel will be transferred to other ferries.

Wellington CBD

In the last 24 hours there have been additional buildings in the Wellington CBD that have been declared an earthquake risk. These are being assessed by structural engineers and new cordons are in place around buildings considered at risk of collapse.

Access to the CBD is therefore constantly being re-assessed and modified because of the risk from unstable buildings

We are doing our best to bring service standards to as near normal a level as possible, given the circumstances caused by the earthquakes and the wild weather in central New Zealand this week. As always, we appreciate your co-operation and patience.