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SS Wairarapa wreck site Wreck site and wreckage of SS Wairarapa

New Zealand ship

  • Auckland Unitary Plan — Schedule 14 Historic Heritage
  • 102.5 km from you
The wreck of the SS Wairarapa, wrecked at Miners Head, Great Barrier Island, New Zealand in 1894.

The wreck of the SS Wairarapa, wrecked at Miners Head, Great Barrier Island, New Zealand in 1894. Photograph by The National Library of New Zealand (Alexander Turnbull Library); photographer possibly HW Smith, Franklin Street, Auckland, Public domain.

Listed as: Auckland Unitary Plan — Schedule 14 Historic Heritage.

The story

SS Wairarapa was a New Zealand ship of the late 19th century plying the route between Auckland, New Zealand and Australia. It was wrecked on a reef at the northern edge of Great Barrier Island, about 100 kilometres (54 nmi) out from Auckland, and sank. The death toll of around 130 people remains one of the largest such losses in the country's history. The ship was named after the Wairarapa region.

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