Cook Strait Ferry collectively refers to the ferry services plying between the North Island and South Island of New Zealand. Currently, there are two companies, Bluebridge and Interislander, sailing several times daily from Wellington, North Island, to Picton, the crossing taking about three hours. Roughly half the crossing is in the open sea, Cook Strait, and the remainder in the Marlborough Sounds.
Because of the stormy nature of the Cook Strait, sailings are often disrupted. However, the ferry is a vital link between the two islands.
Famous quotes containing the words cook, strait and/or ferry:
“I love it, I love it; and who shall dare
To chide me for loving that old arm-chair?”
—Eliza Cook (1818–1889)
“We approached the Indian Island through the narrow strait called “Cook.” He said, “I ‘xpect we take in some water there, river so high,—never see it so high at this season. Very rough water there, but short; swamp steamboat once. Don’t paddle till I tell you, then you paddle right along.” It was a very short rapid. When we were in the midst of it he shouted “paddle,” and we shot through without taking in a drop.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What have Massachusetts and the North sent a few sane representatives to Congress for, of late years?... All their speeches put together and boiled down ... do not match for manly directness and force, and for simple truth, the few casual remarks of crazy John Brown on the floor of the Harper’s Ferry engine-house,—that man whom you are about to hang, to send to the other world, though not to represent you there.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)