This research aims to understand how an extended Cook Strait ferry outage would impact the movement of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) in New Zealand (NZ). The Cook Strait ferries are critical to the country’s freight system, serving as an extension of the main state highway and rail line connecting the North and South Islands. Despite the significance of the ferries, the ferry terminals are aged and lack redundancy, and they could fail in an earthquake. To understand how an extended terminal outage would impact the movement of FMCGs, data was collected through interviews with 30 industry experts in the transport and FMCG sectors, which was thematically analysed and supplemented with quantitative details to further understand the impact. The findings revealed numerous transport bottlenecks would surface in an extended terminal outage and a lack of preparedness in NZ’s freight system. To guide this research, a set of management tools known as the Theory of Constraints Thinking Process were used, enabling sense to be made of NZ’s domestic freight system following a Cook Strait ferry outage. Using these tools to generate visual diagrams, the cause-and-effect relationships between bottlenecks were identified, root causes were uncovered, and potential solutions were explored. Given that it is not a case of if a major disaster will occur, but when, it is important that progress is made towards addressing the identified root causes so that the impact from future disruptions is minimised and goods can continue moving.