Connemara is named after a region in the province of Connacht in western Ireland, facing the Atlantic Ocean.
In 2011 she was chartered to LD Lines for service between Marseille and Tunis, but soon after moved to a new Saint Nazaire-Gijon "Motorway of the Sea" route, replacing Norman Trader.
She was renamed Norman Asturias in June 2011 and she remained on same route until November 2013 when she was transferred to LD Lines' new Poole-Santander service.
When LD Lines carried out a business review in late August 2014 which included the closure of their two Spanish routes from Poole, Norman Asturias finished her final sailing in early September and was then laid up of Saint Nazaire.
She left France at the same time as the MS Norman Atlantic which was then chartered to Caronte and Tourist, later Anek-Superfast.
Norman Asturias started service between Spain and Morocco for Inter in October 2014 after her LD Lines livery was removed and she was then later transferred from the Italian to the Danish Flag in December 2014.
[4] On 29 January 2023 Connemara arrived in Wellington, New Zealand to begin her "Bluebridge" inter-island service across the Cook Strait to Picton for StraitNZ.