TARANAKI (Theologus) / Wakatoa

Recently WW was contacted by Alistair McRae in regard to the vessel – Taranaki, Alistair commented that he spent a big part of his early holiday life on her. At this stage the boat was named Taranaki but Alistair believes it had been renamed (possibly named Theologus).Taranaki was owned by his uncle, Les Henry and was used by Les to tow barges at his sand company on the Waikato River. In the mid 1950’s Les steamed Taranaki out of the Waikato River (West Coast), up and around the top of the North Island and down to Whangarei.

Alistair recalls that she was approx. 37’> 38’ in length and had a four cylinder Fordson engine and had a canoe stern and built like the proverbial brick outhouse. Sadly Alistair has no details on who designed / built Taranaki or when she was launched. Alistair recollects possibly sighting Taranaki moored at Orakei probably 20 or more years ago. Where she may have resided for some years.

What Alistair does have is the actual log of the above mentioned trip from the Waikato River to Whangarei. The crew left the ‘Elbow’ on the Waikato River (where Les’s sand business was and now Winstone) at 0500hrs Friday 5th March 1955. They got to the Waikato Heads 1-1/2hrs later and waited for a day to get through the bar , quite a trip – the full story below – the reproduction is a tad scrappy and I has issues with converting / uploading but in my eyes that just adds to the story 🙂 It appears as a downloadable PDF file and as a booklet – click on the book to view and you can enlarge the pages.

So woodys can anyone enlighten us on Tarananki’s early days.

UPDATE -Thanks to input from Murray Debble we learn that she is now named – Wakatoa and featured on WW back in Dec 2021 https://waitematawoodys.com/2021/12/03/wakatoa-2/

UPDATE  – from Hylton Edmonds -Photos below taken about 4 weeks ago – just upstream of Ashbys Boatyard Opua.