Editing Transport in New Zealand (section)

===Ferry services===
[[File:Cookstraitferry.jpg|thumb|right|[[Interisland Line]]'s {{ship|DEV|Arahura}} in the [[Marlborough Sounds]]]]
Regular [[roll-on/roll-off]] ferry services have crossed [[Cook Strait#Transport|Cook Strait]], linking the [[North Island|North]] and [[South Island]]s between [[Wellington]] and [[Picton, New Zealand|Picton]], since 1962.<ref name="IPENZTG">''A Wheel on Each Corner'', The History of the IPENZ Transportation Group 1956–2006 – Douglass, Malcolm; [[IPENZ]] Transportation Group, 2006, Page 12</ref> Services are provided five ferries operated by two companies: [[Interislander]] (a division of [[KiwiRail]]), and Bluebridge ([[Strait Shipping]]). One ferry used by the Interislander, {{ship|DEV|Aratere||2}}, is a [[train ferry|rail ferry]] capable of transporting both road and rail on separate decks. The four remaining ferries carry passengers and road vehicles only: Interislander's {{ship|MV|Kaitaki||2}} and {{ship|MS|Kaiarahi||2}}, and Bluebridge's {{ship|MS|Strait Feronia||2}} and {{ship|MV|Connemara||2}}.

Depending on the vessel, usual transit time between the North and South Islands is 3 to 3.5 hours. Faster [[catamaran]] ferries were used by [[Tranz Rail]] and its competitors between 1994 and 2004. To reduce voyage times, [[Tranz Rail]] proposed to relocate the South Island terminal of its services to [[Clifford Bay]] in [[Marlborough Region|Marlborough]], which would also avoid a steep section of railway. This proposal has been shelved since the takeover by [[Toll Holdings]] in 2003.

Smaller ferries operate in the [[Bay of Islands]], the [[Hokianga|Hokianga Harbour]], the [[Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana]] and [[Waitematā Harbour]], [[Tauranga Harbour]], [[Wellington]], the [[Marlborough Sounds]], [[Lyttelton, New Zealand|Lyttelton]], between [[Bluff, New Zealand|Bluff]] and [[Halfmoon Bay (Stewart Island)|Halfmoon Bay]] on [[Stewart Island / Rakiura]], and elsewhere.

A passenger ferry service also operated for many years between Wellington and Lyttelton (the port closest to Christchurch). This service was operated by the [[Union Company|Union Steam Ship Company]], and the passenger ferries typically operated an overnight service, although in later years the last of these vessels, the [[TEV Rangatira (1971)|''Rangatira'']], operated alternate nights in each direction plus a daylight sailing from Lyttelton to Wellington on Saturdays (so as to get a balance of four sailings in each direction, each week). One of these passenger ferries, the [[TEV Wahine|''Wahine'']], was lost in a storm as it entered [[Wellington Harbour]] on 10 April 1968, with the loss of 51 passengers and crew. The final sailing of the Rangatira, which was custom built and entered service in 1972, was on 15 September 1976, after two money-losing years (subsidised by the government).{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}}