After decades away, one of the last survivors of the historic Hatrick riverboat fleet has returned to the awa. Moana Ellis reports.
The M.V. Waireka – one of Hatrick’s historic 12-strong fleet of Whanganui riverboats – was the last of her kind put to work on the hazardous upper reaches.
In her heyday in the early 1900s, she carried provisions to missionaries, settlers and Māori living in the isolated northern reaches and became the longest serving of the hardworking vessels that climbed the rapids to Taumarunui.
Now the heritage boat, last seen in Whanganui 25 years ago, will be restored and could join her sister vessels the Waimarie and Wairua on the Whanganui River again.
The old girl’s journey came full circle this month when she was carefully lifted from a reservoir near Ātiamuri in the Waikato River hydro system and brought back to Whanganui.
After falling into disrepair on Lake Ōhakuri, the old workhorse has been gifted “back to her tūrangawaewae” by four sisters who want her brought back to life as an icon of the river’s golden era of riverboats.
“She’s gone home – it feels good,” Ariana Paul said.
Engineer Shane Jones.
The sisters are the daughters of the late engineer Shane Jones, who took her to the Waikato in the 1990s to restore and then put to work on tourist excursions from Huka Falls.
“She was a big passion of Dad’s. It was never a commercial decision – it was a heart decision. He really wanted to breathe life back into her,” Paul said.
“Dad, his workmate Jessie and his boss Tom York – all engineers – along with Dad’s wife Ngaire and other whānau all put a lot of time, energy and aroha over the years into getting her to a pristine state. The interior, the joinery – she was beautiful.”
Jones passed away suddenly in the Chathams during the 2020 Covid lockdown, leaving his daughters with the boat he had painstakingly restored.
By this time, the Waireka had been out of action for about a decade.
“She had deteriorated over time – it broke my heart to see her in the state she was,” Paul said.
“There were eels living in her and every time it rained, she filled up.
“We thought about refurbishing her ourselves, but none of us have the skills and we could not let this part of Dad go to just anybody.”
The whānau has whakapapa to the Whanganui River’s upper reaches through Ngāti Maniapoto and Tūwharetoa. Jones’ younger brother Kenny was one of the kaiwhakairo of the carvings at the ancient river kāinga and marae of Tieke.
Volunteer project lead Steve McClune, Ariana Paul and Whanganui Riverboat Restoration and Navigation Trust chair Marion Johnston head for the slip from the recovery site.
Paul was sitting in the sun at her husband’s marae in Rata when a call came out of the blue. It was Steve McClune, a steam engineer for the Waimarie, which the Whanganui Riverboat Restoration and Navigation Trust had dredged up, restored and re-launched in 2000.
He’d heard the Waireka was still afloat and had been scouting for several years for word of the vintage battler.
When he finally connected with Paul, he raised the idea of bringing her home.
It was a solution that felt right to the sisters. After speaking with trust chair Marion Johnston, they knew their father’s boat would return to the right hands.
“They were just as passionate as Dad about these beautiful heritage boats,” Paul said.
“As a whānau, we decided we would gift the Waireka back. It became one of the best decisions my sisters Vikki, Taryn, Marita and I could make as a whānau.”
On August 13, the sisters farewelled the Waireka from Ōhakuri dam.
“We were so grateful to see her taken back to her tūrangawaewae. We felt it was the right thing to do for Dad. She was going home.
“It was emotional but it felt like closure, and we can still be part of her future. The riverboat trust feels like our whānau now, and we know the story of the Waireka’s journey will always include our father and Ngaire and the Waikato awa.”
Heading home: the Waireka about to leave Lake Ōhakuri.
The two-day exercise to lift, secure and transport the Waireka was carried out by a team of 10 engineers, mechanics and other trust volunteers. She is now on blocks at Pūtiki for initial restoration.
“We’re not sure what this will entail until she’s cleaned up and the hull and timber superstructure can be inspected by a maritime surveyor. We’re hoping she’ll be ready to carry passengers again before the next sailing season,” Johnston said.
The Waireka’s journey home was funded by generous local businesses, Johnston said.
“The next step is to assess the job, get quotes and apply for grant funding. It will then be up to the Waimarie Operating Trust as to how she will be used.”
Including the Ōngarue (on display in the Riverboat Museum), there are now four of the original 1900s riverboats in Whanganui.
Economic development agency Whanganui & Partners said it was thrilled to see a piece of Whanganui history return to its rightful place on the river.
Visitor industries strategic lead Paul Chaplow said the vessel’s return made Whanganui a contender for the riverboat capital of Aotearoa.
“It is heart-warming to see the generosity of the family gifting the Waireka back to Whanganui and we are so proud of the energy and enthusiasm of the Waimarie team in undertaking efforts to get this special vessel back on the awa.
“We look forward to seeing the opportunities this vessel brings. We know the Waimarie and the Wairua are hugely popular with visitors and our local community, and so we fully expect the Waireka to soon have a busy schedule of its own.”
The Waireka’s history
In 1908, the Waireka was the first boat to come from Yarrow & Co.’s Glasgow shipyards in Scotland. Shipped in sections to Whanganui for Alexander Hatrick, she was assembled at Hatrick’s Foundry in 1909.
Hatrick had 12 riverboats plying the Whanganui River, providing access from the coast to the central North Island. Operating under the name Hatrick & Co., the service was inaugurated in 1892.
According to information at the Riverboat Museum on the Whanganui waterfront, the steamer service was essential for river populations as few roads existed. The fleet included the Waireka’s older sister the Wairua, launched in November 1904 to service the middle reaches between Pipiriki and Whakahoro.
On the broader lower reaches, larger and broader-beamed paddle steamers such as the Manuwai carried 400 passengers, and the iconic Waimarie – built in 1899 and originally named the Aotea – ferried cargo as well as passengers on scenic excursions, including to South Beach under moonlight.
Expeditions to the remote and scenic gorges of the middle and upper reaches were a mainstay of Hatrick’s wildly successful international tourism operation.
The Waireka was engineered with a unique propulsion adaptation for Whanganui riverboats, allowing the 19-metre vessel to negotiate 239 rapids over the 230km between Whanganui and Taumarunui.
The ‘single screw in a tunnel’ design recesses the propeller into the bottom of the hull inside a tunnel. Water is drawn into the tunnel and driven through the stern past the rudders – a propulsion system used in today’s jet boats.
Together with the boat’s draft of only 0.3m, the tunnel drive configuration allowed the Waireka to work in less than a metre of water – crucial when navigating the shallow, rock-strewn rapids of the middle and upper reaches, especially during the low water levels of summer.
“She was a lifeline for the upriver development of farming,” Whanganui Riverboat Restoration and Navigation Trust chair Marion Johnston said. “She was a hard-working boat, taking mail, supplies and groceries to isolated farms and communities on the river, back before there was a road, and bringing back stock, sheep and wool.”
Information from a 1960s brochure at the Riverboat Museum paints a picture of the effort needed, on top of the engineering innovations, to haul riverboats upriver.
“Over the rapids, the boats were aided by a system of winching and the faithful services of the Māoris [sic] living all along the river’s length, who kept the fixed ropes maintained, cleared the channels of snags and boulders and waded into the cold, rough waters to hitch up winching gear.
“Thus, passengers, mail and provisions were carried for settlers, missionaries and the large Māori population, which for generations had used the river as their only means of access to the Taupo region and the land tracks to the Waikato or down to the sea to get fish, to make war, or to travel around the coast.”
Hatrick’s riverboat service ended in 1958 after the death of the last regular river pilot, Captain Anderson, in 1954.
* Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
