The ferry grounded just outside Picton on Friday night. Photo: Supplied / Renee Horncastle
Interislander's Aratere ferry had received an overhaul of its steering system just three weeks before it veered off-course and hit the shore.
The Aratere ran aground 3km north of Picton on Friday night with 47 people on board.
All passengers had since disembarked and KiwiRail was planning to refloat the ferry on the high tide at 9pm.
At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Interislander executive general manager Duncan Roy said the Aratere had wet dock maintenance work just three weeks before last night's breakdown.
The work saw a number of systems upgraded on the ship, including the pre-emptive replacement of its steering system, Roy said.
"That was part of our commitment to improving the maintenance and reliability of the ferries."
In a statement on Friday night, KiwiRail said the ship ran aground following a steering failure.
But KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy said on Saturday they could not be sure yet what caused the accident, and were very disappointed with what had happened.
"It is serious that we have had a ship grounded so we will look through root cause investigation, but we have invested significant money and time recently in upgrading the steering system."
The grounding came just days after Transport Minister Simeon Brown raised serious concerns about KiwiRail's maintenance of its fleet.
It was fortunate that the incident did not happen in the middle of Cook Strait, Reidy said.
Two dive operations were underway, and they had discovered the ship was resting on sand and gravel rather than jagged rocks.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission has opened an inquiry into the incident.
Earlier, the press conference was interrupted by a man walking his dog nearby who shouted, "Blame the Prime Minister [for] cancelling the new ferries."
Discussions around a replacement for the ferries was for another day, Reidy said.
"Today is about recovery of the ship."
