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Visions of a scenic ride on a Waikato River ferry have sunk.
The Waikato River Explorer, the city’s river tour business, was due to start daily ferry service in August to make up for a recession due to a lack of tourists.
The test, which runs from Pūkete to the Hamilton CBD, was postponed until September 14 due to the announcement of alert level 2.
Now the owners are “pulling the pin” on the company completely after being stranded with no night jetty to tie up to.
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“For the ferry to be viable, we had to dock the ship overnight in the city,” said CEO Darren Mills. Stuff.
The company, which stores all of its vessels in Mystery Creek, originally planned to dock at the Memorial Park jetty, but it was later argued that the nearly complete jetty near the rowing club would be a better fit.
WAIKATO RIVER EXPLORER / SUPPLIED
The scenic ferry trip has been canceled after the Hamilton City Council prevented the ship from docking overnight at the soon-to-be-completed $ 2 million jetty.
The $ 2 million pier infrastructure, funded by the Hamilton City Council, was due to be completed on March 31, but due to Covid-19 it was delayed until December.
Waikato River Explorer intended to find a temporary place to spend the night and then move to the new jetty in December.
But since then the council has turned sour on the idea.
“They said, no, he won’t be spending the night on the jetty because we are concerned about the effect it will have on all the other users of the river,” Mills said.
“They would rather we spend the night in Memorial Park, where there are currently no facilities and an old rotten jetty, next to which boats cannot be parked when the river is low.
“If we have to keep our ships in Mystery Creek, it is not feasible to continue.”
Mills has notified the news to all shareholders of the company.
“We will definitely stop the daily ferry, but we will also discuss in the coming weeks about … getting rid of our ships entirely or moving them to an area that is a little more modifiable.”
Hamilton Deputy Mayor Geoff Taylor said Stuff the council is reluctant to have Mills moored his boat overnight at the new jetty, but still wants to see the Waikato River Explorer on the river.
“We really support what the Waikato River Explorer has done and support the service, and we have actually spent a significant amount of money to support it in terms of infrastructure.
“But we have to be aware that it is taxpayers’ money that we spend on what is really a private business,” Taylor said.
He is aware that the jetty is a public good and that having a boat permanently moored at night would restrict access.
Parks and recreation manager Maria Barrie said more infrastructure would be needed to support the night pier.
“The city council needs to look at the power connection, the water connections and potentially a door and what those things actually look like. So the council wanted a bit more detail before I could absolutely say that you can tie up here overnight. “
Taylor hopes to meet with Mills before the end of the week to continue discussions.
