She was born to work. And she did for 79 years.
She was even named for work – ‘Waitere’ meaning to serve, and she did.
‘Waitere’ was the Faulkner Bros’ ferry which plied between Tauranga’s Coronation Pier off the end of Wharf Street and Mount Maunganui’s Salisbury Wharf. She was built in Picton 1944 especially for the job.
“She wasn’t pretty,” says Tauranga sailor Bill Faulkner.
As a child in the 1980s, Alisha Evans crossed the harbour from Mount Maunganui in the Waitere for “nana- granddaughter” days in the city.
The old lady sank six to eight metres to the bottom of the Bay of Islands after a collision five minutes into another crossing from Russell to Paihia on April 13.
Miraculously, only the Waitere’s skipper and owner, 77-year-old Bill Elliott, was injured, although he suffered severe head and spinal injuries.
Waitere disappeared off Tauranga’s harbour about the time the $25 million harbour bridge opened in March 1988.
Credit: sunlive.co.nz
