What is Wellington's “Wanganella Weather”?

For many years before regular aircraft flights to Sydney, the Wanganella and the Monowai were the two passenger ships which did alternating Auckland-Sydney Wellington-Sydney runs. At that time it was a three-day trip experienced by many New Zealand and Australian travellers.

On a beautiful calm Wellington evening at about 11pm on the 19 January 1947, the Wanganella sailed past Island Bay on her first return to Wellington after being refitted from her wartime use as a hospital ship. No one could have forseen that some 30 minutes later she would be impaled on rocks at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. The reef, named after one of Wellington's earlier settlers/pilots, Dickie Barrett, lies at the western side of the harbour entrance and the southernmost pinnacle of this group is known as Outer Rock. All the Wanganella's 9,876 tons gross and 461 foot length was now precariously wedged on this rock.

Paramount was the safety of the 400 passengers on board, and the Pilot Launch Arahina and the Harbour Ferry Cobar carried out sterling work carrying them to Wellington with no loss of life. Initial inspections showed that the Wanganella's forward hull and bow were badly damaged. Attempts by the Wellington tugboats Toia and Terawhiti, which were later joined by the Wanganui tug Tahanui, to tow her off were unsuccessful and there would have been little hope of salvaging her had the weather and sea not remained calm for the next 18 days. No one familiar with Wellington weather would have dared predict such a period of calm at any time of year (remember the Penguin went down during a fierce southerly storm on 12 February 1909 with the loss of over 70 lives). But calm it inexplicably remained, hence the origin of the phrase “Wanganella Weather”. During that time concrete was placed in her hull to try to reseal it, air compressors were put on board, and the hatch was sealed with steel beams. The aim was to pressurise the air in the forward hatch to keep the water out.