Those keen to escape the super city for the long weekend have turned out in large numbers at Auckland's ferry terminal.
Video shared to Twitter on Saturday morning shows a long snake of people with suitcases and chilly bins lining up in the sun at Auckland's downtown ferry terminal, with the line going on for what looked like over 200 metres.
"It's the Labour Weekend queue for Waiheke," one person commented. "There are some pretty frustrated family over here venting on Facebook."
A spokesperson for ferry operator Fullers360 told Newshub that with the mix of beautiful weather and the long weekend, high passenger numbers were expected.
"We have issued proactive travel alerts and social media posts this week to warn people of the higher than usual passenger volumes expected."
The spokesperson said like many other Kiwi tourism operators, they are experiencing an industry-wide skills shortage.
"We have limited crew available to run backup contingency vessels to help transport more people to the island at peak times."
They recognised long queues can be frustrating and urged those wanting to travel to do so on off-peak times.
"We are also encouraging customers to be kind to our crew who are working incredibly hard to get people to where they need to be this weekend."
