How well do you know our district?
Quiz compiled by David Scoullar
1. For how many years did the vessel San Juan Traveller move iron ore from Waipipi to Japan?
2. After what event in 1843 did Whanganui settlers believe the town was in some way connected with a volcano?
3. The recycling plant in Maria Pl extension was formerly the site of what significant building?
4. Where do you find Cave and Long beaches?
5. Where did the Steam Packet Hotel once stand?
6. How is Mayor Hamish McDouall related to Jacinda Ardern?
7. Who wrote a recent book described as "a self-drive guide to Whanganui's engineering heritage"?
8. Laraine Sole's last book on a Whanganui suburb focused on what area?
9. This bird was first noted in Whanganui in 1967 and is now prominent at Virginia Lake.
10. A meeting of settlers at Upokongaro in 1879 decided to petition the government to provide what for the river?
Quiz Answers
1. 16 years, from 1971 to 1987.
2. A major earthquake after which sulphurous vapour poured from large cracks in some parts of the district. This was the first NZ earthquake over magnitude 7 for which written records exist and the first for which deaths were recorded.
3. The City Prison.
4. At Waverley Beach.
5. Taupo Quay. Replacing the burned down York Hotel, it was at the time the largest three-storey building in Whanganui.
6. He is a second cousin.
7. Engineer Karen Wrigglesworth.
8. Gonville.
9. Eurasian Coot, a self-introduced species from Australia. It was first recorded breeding in Otago in 1958 and is now widespread through NZ except Northland.
10. A gunboat for a locally-raised naval brigade.
Six correct — good; 8 — very good; 10 — genius!
