New Zealand's worst railway disaster occurred on Christmas Eve 1953, when the Wellington–Auckland night express plunged into the swollen Whangaehu River near Tangiwai. Of the 285 people on board, 151 were killed. The tragedy stunned the world and left a nation in mourning.
A few months after the last steam locomotives had been withdrawn from this country's scheduled rail operations, New Zealand Railways launched a new tourist-oriented steam passenger venture in the South Island.
The Christchurch-Dunedin overnight express, headed by a JA-class locomotive, ran the last scheduled steam-hauled service on New Zealand Railways, bringing to an end 108 years of regular steam rail operations in this country.
Politicians used the ferries to
travel between their electorates and Wellington,
so they scrutinised the Union Steam Ship Company's management of the ships.
As inter-island passengers switched from trains to
private cars in the 1960s, the Maori was converted to a roll-on roll-off
ferry, loading vehicles through a stern door.
Premier: 8 Apr 1873 – 6 Jul 1875; 15 Feb – 1 Sep 1876 Age on becoming premier: 38 Electorate: Auckland City East
Although he spent just 18 years here, journalist, businessman and politician Julius (Sir Julius from 1874) Vogel dominated our politics. The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography describes our first Jewish premier as ‘vastly ambitious’ and ‘clever, impulsive, generous, strong-willed to the point of being domineering.’ Contemporaries might have been less polite.
Crossing Cook Strait is often idyllic, but it can be one of the world’s roughest stretches of water as it's part of the westerly wind belt known as the Roaring Forties.
Cook Strait ferries were vital to the flow of freight and
passengers between the North and South islands, and interruptions because of bad weather, mechanical problems or strikes and lockouts inevitably
hit the headlines.
On a fine, calm day ‘Cruising on the Interislander’ can be like a luxury Mediterranean cruise. But on a bad day Cook Strait can be one of the world's roughest stretches of water: seasickness, dodgy food and wildcat strikes have all been part of the colourful Cook Strait ferry story.
Resembling a modern European or Asian metro station, Auckland’s gleaming Britomart Transport Centre has helped boost rail commuter patronage in this sprawling, car-dominated city.
Before most people had cars or telephones, let alone television and the Internet, the railway provided many communities with their main connection to the outside world.
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.
