FULLERS FERRIES - VERY POOR SERVICE!

Pippi from St Heliers

FULLERS FERRIES, VERY POOR SERVICE - a tip for unsuspecting day trippers to Waiheke Island: we had a lovely day cycling Waiheke on Saturday. The ferry was packed going over in the morning (so Fullers would have known it was a busy day).
As we were cycling home 10ks on our return we arrived at the Waiheke ferry terminal 25 minutes before the 5pm ferry was due to depart. The queue was already long and by 5pm it was out the door and along the road.
At 5pm the ferry departed leaving us with our bikes and dog along with probably 200 others in the queue stranded on the wharf in the cold, wind and dark for AN HOUR until the next scheduled ferry arrived. We were freezing, tired, couldn’t leave the queue for fear of loosing our place, and no second ferry was sent to rescue everyone. We arrived back in Auckland an hour late and had to cycle home 45 minutes in the cold and dark 😡. We are in our 70s, not young chicks any more!
Our gripe is that they would have known it was a busy day but no planning was made to put on more or bigger ferries. They are a monopoly and just don’t care. This is not a one off occasion - this is not a good look or experience for tourists and locals alike.
Come on Fullers, you can and should do better.