-
Menu Taupo Landslide 1846
A devastating landslide obliterated the Ngāti Tūwharetoa village of Te Rapa on the south-west shore of Lake Taupō. Sixty people were killed, including the paramount chief Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II. The source of the landslides was an unstable geothermal area known as the Hipaua Steaming Cliffs -
1863 HMS Orpheus shipwreck
On 7 February the Royal Navy steam corvette HMS Orpheus, carrying British troops, foundered at the entrance to Auckland’s Manukau Harbour. Of the 259 men on board, 189 died in the worst maritime disaster in New Zealand waters. -
1863 Central Otago floods
Twenty-five gold miners lost their lives as flash floods raged along the Shotover River, north-east of Queenstown, on 26 July 1863. -
1866 General Grant shipwreck
On 14 May 1866, the sailing ship General Grant was wrecked in the Auckland Islands, south of New Zealand, with the loss of (ultimately) 73 lives. Ten survivors were finally rescued 18 months later. -
1943 Hyde railway accident
On 4 June the Cromwell–Dunedin express derailed near Hyde, Central Otago, with the loss of 21 lives.
