MV ''Aratika'' was a

roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...

train ferry A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train f ...

that operated on the ''

Interislander Interislander is a road and rail ferry service across New Zealand's Cook Strait, between Wellington in the North Island and Picton in the South Island. It is owned and operated by state-owned rail operator KiwiRail. Three roll-on roll-off (R ...

'' between

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

and Picton in New Zealand from 1974 until 1999. The Ministry for Culture & Heritage gives Aratika as a Māori-language word meaning direct path.

History

MV Aratika rail ferry as originally built

''Aratika'' was built by

Chantiers Dubigeon ''Chantiers Dubigeon'' was a shipyard established in 1760 by Julien Dubigeon in Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a p ...

in France for the New Zealand Railways Department to operate between

and Picton. She was built to carry rail freight only Launched in November 1973, the ship arrived in Wellington in June 1974. In 1976 she was converted by Hongkong United Dockyards to carry passengers and private vehicles as well as

railway wagon A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...

s. This increased her passenger capacity from 10 to 840, and the car space from four to 70. During her 25 years of service the vessel completed 27,265 crossings and traveled an overall distance of . In 1999, she was sold to MBRS Lines in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and served as MV ''Virgin Mary'' until 2008, when sold to Indian ship-breakers.

References

External links

Aratika
at New Zealand Maritime Record Cook Strait ferries Ferries of the Philippines Ships built by Chantiers Dubigeon 1973 ships {{Philippines-transport-stub