40th anniversary of the Wahine storm
Posted 7 April 2008 // Helen Rickerby
The Wahine on its side
Forty years ago my mother had just arrived in New Zealand. She’d come here from South Africa after marrying my father, a native of Palmerston North, and they were living in Upper Hutt.
As you might expect, she was finding things a bit different here, a bit strange. So when the wind picked up, she took it in her stride. ‘It’s probably like this all the time’, she thought.
It wasn’t too long before she realised it was a bit more serious. Everyone was advised to stay inside, and she watched pieces of the neighbours’ fences blowing past the window. And then she heard about the Wahine foundering in the harbour.
The Wahine, a Cook Strait ferry, sank at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. Fifty-one people died.
Te Ara covers the 10 April 1968 storm and shipwreck in a range of entries, including Shipwrecks, Weather, Search and rescue and Ocean currents and tides. There are also ‘Your stories’ accounts by people who experienced the storm, such as Bob Maysmor, who had to drive through waves to get home to Eastbourne; Stuart Young, whose boat capsized while he was trying to help rescue Wahine passengers; and John Laker, whose Kingston house was completely destroyed by the wind.
To commemorate the tragedy, NZHistory.net.nz has a feature on the Wahine disaster, there’s a page about it for children on Christchurch City Libraries‘ website, the National Library has put together a showcase of resources, and a website devoted to the Wahine has a page about the sinking.
My Dad has a story about how he drove around to Seatoun with his mates in his old Morris 8 to see what they could do. There were telephone and power lines down and electric sparks on the road. Apparently the Morris handled them ok. At the time, he was a Teachers’ College student and they had the afternoon off class!