On Christmas Eve, 1953, an express steam locomotive hauling 11 carriages left Wellington bound for Auckland. Many of the 285 passengers and crew were heading home for Christmas.
At 10.21pm the train reached the bridge over the Whangaehu River, New Zealand near Tangiwai, east of Ohakune, North Island. Minutes before, however, a pier of the bridge had been taken out by a 6 metre high wave of icy mud and rocks after a natural dam holding back the crater lake on nearby Mt Ruapehu collapsed. The driver and fireman slammed on the brakes but the locomotive and six carriages plunged into the river.
All told, 151 people died; 20 bodies were never found. Over the following days, searchers found battered, muddy presents and toys on the banks of the river.
The Queen, who was visiting the country with Prince Philip, ended her Christmas broadcast from Auckland with a message of sympathy to the people of New Zealand.
Tangiwai, which means “weeping waters” in Māori remains the country’s worst rail accident.
***
It was said at the time that almost everyone in NZ was connected in some way to someone on the train, a family member perhaps, friend or friend of a friend. My wife lost a close friend in the disaster. She was in the same class at
Teachers Training College (as was Murray Halberg incidentally).
***
Bob Blair, NZ fast-medium bowler, was on tour with the team in South Africa when news came through that his fiancée, Nerissa Love, had died in the disaster. With the Test at Johannesburg nearing the finish an announcement was made that Blair would take no further part in the match. At the fall of the ninth wicket Bert Sutcliffe made as if to return to the pavilion when Bob Blair came out to bat. The packed crowd stood in silence as Bob made his way to the crease. The pair added 33 for the last wicket with Sutcliffe hitting 3 sixes and Blair one from an eight-ball over. But in the next over Sutcliffe was stumped off Hugh inTayfield and SA won by 132 runs.
A book was written about the incident in which Bob Blair wrote the foreword and in 2011 a TV documentary was made by TVNZ
