July 8, 2025 • 9 mins
There is a new ferry in Wellington Harbour - and it looks remarkably similar to an existing one.
Bluebridge's new ferry Livia has arrived in the capital - the sister ship to the existing Connemara vessel already operated by Bluebridge.
The ship, built in 2008, was previously operated by a ferry line in Europe, but has since had a fresh lick of paint and is currently undergoing internal renovations ahead of its first voyage across the Cook Strait in about two weeks.
Nick was invited on a tour of the new ship, as well as a chat with Bluebridge/Strait NZ chief executive Shane McMahon.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks at ball textwhere.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Now. Yesterday I had the opportunity to do something really cool.
Blue Bridge invited Ethan and I to go to their
brand new ship Livia that they've just purchased from a
European ferry company. The ship arrived in Wellington last week
and will take passengers and freight on its first sailing
in around about two weeks time. It really opened my
eyes to see the big operation that competes with the
(00:45):
inter Islander. It was even more interesting to find out
the Blue Bridge actually carries more freight and nearly the
same amount of passengers as the inter Islander. I started
the tour with a chat with Blue Bridge CEO Shane
mahone and their terminal opposite the railway station. Take a listen, right,
I'm the foyer of Blue Bridges I suppose reception area
(01:11):
you'd call it. With Shane McMahon, the CEO. Shane, this
is pretty magnificent view you got from your office.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It is so as I was just saying, we purchased
the vessel up in Europe from a company called Stener.
It had been plying its trade between Latvia and northern Germany,
and we did what's called a dry dock, so we
took it to a very small shipyard in a place
called o'dentsk in just north of Copenhagen, so we repainted
(01:42):
the outside of the vessel completely and then it's a
six week journey down here. So she left o'dense call
at the end of May. We went into the south
of England, picked up a bit of cargo down through
the Panama Canal.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Can I just ask you if it was your crew
that's going to crew the boat? Did they bring it
over here?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
We had a mixture, so we worked with this company
up in Europe and they provided crew to bring her down,
but we did have our own offices and engineers on
board as well.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Can I ask you if it's commercially sensitive. I mean,
I painted a couple of houses in my time, but
what would it cost a paint a boat that's the
sides of a rugby field.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Well, I won't go into exact numbers, but it's it's
when you see the number of empty paintings, it is.
It is quite incredible, and it's not.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Were you over there? Did you go over and see it?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
No, no, I was on board for the first time
on Thursday, so I wasn't I wasn't up in Denmark
for the dry dock, but on the voyage down using
that six weeks we've actually done a lot of the
interior paint as well. So when you when we go
for a wandering in a second, you'll get to see,
you know, the standard of the vessel is absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Because it was built in two thousand and eight, correct,
so she's not a new bay, but she looks pretty
new from where we're standing.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Well, I think to the to the uninitiated, it looks
like a new vessel, you know, as you say it's
it's got clean paint inside and outside, and as as
we go and have a wander around, there's some really
nice features. We've got the pet friendly cabins, which we've
had on board the Connomara for some time. The food
(03:32):
is excellent, you know, I.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Think catered or you have caterers.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
We we cook all of the food on board ourselves
and got a very good chicken berg going at the moment,
which was part of Wellington's Burger on a Plate competition recently.
And yeah, I'll show you some of the cabins and
what have you. And it's you back to the question.
It really presents like a like a new vessel.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Right, let's get on this baby.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Right, we've just walked in the backside of Olivia. That
doesn't sound too good, but it's longer than a rugby
your chain.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, so one hundred and ninety meters. We've just walked
down at what we call deck three. So on board
this vessel, we've got around about sixteen hundred lay meters
of a freight capacity. And yeah, you can see it's
it's almost two rugby fields long rugby fields. Well, at
one hundred and ninety you get in close, you're really close.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I don't think I could kick a ball twice and
get to the other end. And I've got quite got
a good boot on it, I know. Let's go, let's
go and have a look. We just come through and
it's got a nice looking coffee barred, nice tiled area,
some life, relaxed heating. It almost Ethan's just explained that
he's a bit of a cruiser. He goes on cruises.
(04:50):
It almost feels like a cruiser.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, it's it's got that real nautical sort of vibe.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
To it.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
So just on the left there, we've got the big
recliners so as I said, we're replacing a couple of
hundred plugs on board. Is Wi Fi charging there as well.
And then this area here. We're close to the cafe,
so I'll show you around the corner on a second.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
We can walk and talk at the same time. We're clever.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
We've got an area here for the children. Nice views
from up here as you can see.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Beautiful condition. It is in beautiful condition. I know you're
doing some work on it, but it's some beautiful condition.
It feels it feels like it not doesn't feel like
a ten or fifteen year old ship, does it.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
No, Well, you know, I've been on board a few
new vessels up in Europe, and to the uninitiated, it's
as I say, it's had that for Warren of Fitness
painted inside out. By the time we get these finishing
touches done in the next couple of weeks, she's going.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
To look so bad. She does now.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
As you can hear, it's a pretty impressive ship. We
also got to check out a cabin and I definitely
stay the night in it. Right we're with Shane's CEO. Gosh,
we're in a cabin on a ferry that takes us
from Willington. Depict them bed own bathroom, great views TV.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Great way to spend three and a half hours for
the transit time. So if you want to be down
with the general population downstairs with the caf and the
kids area. There's a movie theater down there as well.
That's all good if you prefer your own space, as
you say, there, you know, it's got that scandinavy and
look to it. It's really well appointed.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Your glashous hell. I mean it's a four and a
half star hotel, that's right.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, we get great feedback and I think a lot
of people probably don't take advantage of the cabins, but
there's plenty of cabins on board. And for that extra
sort of fifty five dollars of sailing, it's it's a
great way to go.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I tell you what, if you were going to take
this straight across, specially in the middle of the night,
the late night ones, I mean, wouldn't you. I mean,
you stupid not to take your cabins, go to sleep,
wake up, drive your car off and you're done.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
It's well, you know, we come around wake people up
just before, can give them a chance to get ready
and down to the car and off your drive.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And finally Shane took us up to the bridge the
controls of the ship and I would say one of
the best views in Wellington when you're looking at it parked,
you're looking straight out to Orono Bay.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
It was incredible.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So people wouldn't actually realize Shane, but your market share
of the getting stock and people across the Crook Strait
is a lot more major than what I would have thought.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yeah, yeah, so I guess just step backer. But we've
we've spent well over two hundred million on fleet replacement
over three years. The reason we're doing that is we
want to continue to run safe, reliable operations. I can
talk to you about reliability stats. But the other thing
we're trying to do is invest in capacity. So when
(07:55):
we bought the Connomar into service three years ago, we
increase our fleet capacity by thirty five percent. When the
Livia comes into service that will increase it by another
ten percent. And in terms of the market dynamics to
your question, so we carry fifty five percent of all
road freight. That crosses cocked straight today and we carried
(08:15):
just under forty percent of the of the passenger market.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Why do we need the other opposition? Then, we've got
all that government money and our taxpayer money. Why do
we need them?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Well, we just need to focus on what we're doing politics.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
We're up at the bridge, that's what you call it,
in the bridge, and I tell you what, it's bigger
than an average house.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Yeah, yeah, large area. Are millions of dollars worth of
electronics up here. This is really the you know, the
brains of the operation. And if you're to take a
lockout out the windows here, you start to get a
feel for just how Magnia.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Thank you very much for allowing News Talks that Be
to come on and have a look around.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Livia. Just from a well in only wish you.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
All the very best, hope that it goes really really
well for you. It feels I don't know, it just
feels pretty damn amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, no, I appreciate the well wishes. As a business,
we're super excited to be in this position to have
the two sister vessels operating. I think it's going to
be great for cookstraight, great for New Zealand. And yeah,
we ken to get into it.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
We forget about the tourism, don't we. We forget about
how important the tourism is to New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, yeah, you know there's a lot of people they'll
base that trip around, you know, on the on the theory,
coming into the sounds. It's you know, if you've never
done it, it's it's well worth it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
And this is a spectacular way to do it. So
congratulations and as I say, all the very best.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Brilliant, I appreciate, thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, Listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine am week days,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks at ball textwhere.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Now. Yesterday I had the opportunity to do something really cool.
Blue Bridge invited Ethan and I to go to their
brand new ship Livia that they've just purchased from a
European ferry company. The ship arrived in Wellington last week
and will take passengers and freight on its first sailing
in around about two weeks time. It really opened my
eyes to see the big operation that competes with the
(00:45):
inter Islander. It was even more interesting to find out
the Blue Bridge actually carries more freight and nearly the
same amount of passengers as the inter Islander. I started
the tour with a chat with Blue Bridge CEO Shane
mahone and their terminal opposite the railway station. Take a listen, right,
I'm the foyer of Blue Bridges I suppose reception area
(01:11):
you'd call it. With Shane McMahon, the CEO. Shane, this
is pretty magnificent view you got from your office.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
It is so as I was just saying, we purchased
the vessel up in Europe from a company called Stener.
It had been plying its trade between Latvia and northern Germany,
and we did what's called a dry dock, so we
took it to a very small shipyard in a place
called o'dentsk in just north of Copenhagen, so we repainted
(01:42):
the outside of the vessel completely and then it's a
six week journey down here. So she left o'dense call
at the end of May. We went into the south
of England, picked up a bit of cargo down through
the Panama Canal.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Can I just ask you if it was your crew
that's going to crew the boat? Did they bring it
over here?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
We had a mixture, so we worked with this company
up in Europe and they provided crew to bring her down,
but we did have our own offices and engineers on
board as well.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Can I ask you if it's commercially sensitive. I mean,
I painted a couple of houses in my time, but
what would it cost a paint a boat that's the
sides of a rugby field.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Well, I won't go into exact numbers, but it's it's
when you see the number of empty paintings, it is.
It is quite incredible, and it's not.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Were you over there? Did you go over and see it?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
No, no, I was on board for the first time
on Thursday, so I wasn't I wasn't up in Denmark
for the dry dock, but on the voyage down using
that six weeks we've actually done a lot of the
interior paint as well. So when you when we go
for a wandering in a second, you'll get to see,
you know, the standard of the vessel is absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Because it was built in two thousand and eight, correct,
so she's not a new bay, but she looks pretty
new from where we're standing.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Well, I think to the to the uninitiated, it looks
like a new vessel, you know, as you say it's
it's got clean paint inside and outside, and as as
we go and have a wander around, there's some really
nice features. We've got the pet friendly cabins, which we've
had on board the Connomara for some time. The food
(03:32):
is excellent, you know, I.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Think catered or you have caterers.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
We we cook all of the food on board ourselves
and got a very good chicken berg going at the moment,
which was part of Wellington's Burger on a Plate competition recently.
And yeah, I'll show you some of the cabins and
what have you. And it's you back to the question.
It really presents like a like a new vessel.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Right, let's get on this baby.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Right, we've just walked in the backside of Olivia. That
doesn't sound too good, but it's longer than a rugby
your chain.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, so one hundred and ninety meters. We've just walked
down at what we call deck three. So on board
this vessel, we've got around about sixteen hundred lay meters
of a freight capacity. And yeah, you can see it's
it's almost two rugby fields long rugby fields. Well, at
one hundred and ninety you get in close, you're really close.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I don't think I could kick a ball twice and
get to the other end. And I've got quite got
a good boot on it, I know. Let's go, let's
go and have a look. We just come through and
it's got a nice looking coffee barred, nice tiled area,
some life, relaxed heating. It almost Ethan's just explained that
he's a bit of a cruiser. He goes on cruises.
(04:50):
It almost feels like a cruiser.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, it's it's got that real nautical sort of vibe.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
To it.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
So just on the left there, we've got the big
recliners so as I said, we're replacing a couple of
hundred plugs on board. Is Wi Fi charging there as well.
And then this area here. We're close to the cafe,
so I'll show you around the corner on a second.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
We can walk and talk at the same time. We're clever.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
We've got an area here for the children. Nice views
from up here as you can see.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Beautiful condition. It is in beautiful condition. I know you're
doing some work on it, but it's some beautiful condition.
It feels it feels like it not doesn't feel like
a ten or fifteen year old ship, does it.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
No, Well, you know, I've been on board a few
new vessels up in Europe, and to the uninitiated, it's
as I say, it's had that for Warren of Fitness
painted inside out. By the time we get these finishing
touches done in the next couple of weeks, she's going.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
To look so bad. She does now.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
As you can hear, it's a pretty impressive ship. We
also got to check out a cabin and I definitely
stay the night in it. Right we're with Shane's CEO. Gosh,
we're in a cabin on a ferry that takes us
from Willington. Depict them bed own bathroom, great views TV.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Great way to spend three and a half hours for
the transit time. So if you want to be down
with the general population downstairs with the caf and the
kids area. There's a movie theater down there as well.
That's all good if you prefer your own space, as
you say, there, you know, it's got that scandinavy and
look to it. It's really well appointed.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Your glashous hell. I mean it's a four and a
half star hotel, that's right.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Yeah, we get great feedback and I think a lot
of people probably don't take advantage of the cabins, but
there's plenty of cabins on board. And for that extra
sort of fifty five dollars of sailing, it's it's a
great way to go.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I tell you what, if you were going to take
this straight across, specially in the middle of the night,
the late night ones, I mean, wouldn't you. I mean,
you stupid not to take your cabins, go to sleep,
wake up, drive your car off and you're done.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
It's well, you know, we come around wake people up
just before, can give them a chance to get ready
and down to the car and off your drive.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And finally Shane took us up to the bridge the
controls of the ship and I would say one of
the best views in Wellington when you're looking at it parked,
you're looking straight out to Orono Bay.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
It was incredible.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So people wouldn't actually realize Shane, but your market share
of the getting stock and people across the Crook Strait
is a lot more major than what I would have thought.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yeah, yeah, so I guess just step backer. But we've
we've spent well over two hundred million on fleet replacement
over three years. The reason we're doing that is we
want to continue to run safe, reliable operations. I can
talk to you about reliability stats. But the other thing
we're trying to do is invest in capacity. So when
(07:55):
we bought the Connomar into service three years ago, we
increase our fleet capacity by thirty five percent. When the
Livia comes into service that will increase it by another
ten percent. And in terms of the market dynamics to
your question, so we carry fifty five percent of all
road freight. That crosses cocked straight today and we carried
(08:15):
just under forty percent of the of the passenger market.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Why do we need the other opposition? Then, we've got
all that government money and our taxpayer money. Why do
we need them?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Well, we just need to focus on what we're doing politics.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
We're up at the bridge, that's what you call it,
in the bridge, and I tell you what, it's bigger
than an average house.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Yeah, yeah, large area. Are millions of dollars worth of
electronics up here. This is really the you know, the
brains of the operation. And if you're to take a
lockout out the windows here, you start to get a
feel for just how Magnia.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Thank you very much for allowing News Talks that Be
to come on and have a look around.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Livia. Just from a well in only wish you.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
All the very best, hope that it goes really really
well for you. It feels I don't know, it just
feels pretty damn amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, no, I appreciate the well wishes. As a business,
we're super excited to be in this position to have
the two sister vessels operating. I think it's going to
be great for cookstraight, great for New Zealand. And yeah,
we ken to get into it.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
We forget about the tourism, don't we. We forget about
how important the tourism is to New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, yeah, you know there's a lot of people they'll
base that trip around, you know, on the on the theory,
coming into the sounds. It's you know, if you've never
done it, it's it's well worth it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
And this is a spectacular way to do it. So
congratulations and as I say, all the very best.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Brilliant, I appreciate, thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, Listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine am week days,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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