On 12 December, 1987, two years after it was blown up in Auckland Harbour, the Rainbow Warrior was scuttled to become a dive site. The boat was sunk off Matauri Bay, quite close to the Cavalli Islands.
When the Royal New Zealand Navy came into being on 1 October 1941, its main combat units were two Leander-class cruisers: Achilles and Leander. Although its early war was quieter than the Achilles, the Leander was to see dramtic action in the Pacific War.
October 2011 marks the 70th anniversary of the formation of the Royal New Zealand Navy. In 1941 the new navy had three brand-new ships – the Moa, Kiwi and Tui – working up or fitting out in Scotland. These little Bird-class minesweepers would see dramatic action in the Pacific War.
Forty years ago, on 19 June 1971, the first all-container ship to visit New Zealand arrived in Wellington. The Columbus New Zealand was part of a worldwide revolution in shipping. These simple steel boxes would change our transport industry, our ports and how we work and shop.
On 1 January 2009 Pencarrow Lighthouse at the entrance to Wellington Harbour celebrated its 150th anniversary. New Zealand’s first permanent lighthouse, Pencarrow was also home to this country’s first – and only – female lighthouse keeper.
Ports were the beachheads of colonial expansion. No town could
prosper without one. Oamaru Harbour, which closed to shipping in 1974, is the best place in the country to see how and why
all New Zealanders once depended so heavily on sea transport.
This April marks the 44th anniversary of the sinking of the ferry Wahine. With more than 50 lives lost, this was New Zealand's worst modern maritime disaster. The Wahine’s demise on 10 April 1968 also heralded a new era in local TV news as pictures of the disaster were beamed into Kiwi living rooms.
The disasters timeline and map give an overview of New Zealand's worst natural disasters, transport accidents, fires, mining accidents and other tragedies that have caused major loss of life.
European settlement at Oamaru began in 1853, and in the 1860s the town grew rich servicing pastoralists and gold
miners. Oamaru, though, was no port. Cape Wanbrow, a stubby little headland, gave
some shelter from southerly winds but none from easterlies.
New Zealand's domestic shipping industry played a vital role during the war. A small tributary of the vast British shipping empire, it was largely confined to 'short-sea' (trans-Tasman, South Pacific and coastal) trades.
The Birds were unusual. Although they looked a little like the Admiralty’s Isles-class minesweeping trawlers, their extended forecastles gave them more of a naval look
Although it was waged half a world away, few military campaigns were as vital to New Zealand's interests as the Battle of the Atlantic. A German victory, which would have severed this country's links with Britain, was one of the gravest threats New Zealand has ever faced.
