Guru launch 'historic'
The recent ship launching at Foxton Beach was a spectacular and significant event Guru, departure over the Manawatu River bar was easily the largest such event for more than 70 years.
There may still be local people who remember the coastal trading vessel Huanui, that in the 1930s worked out of Foxton to Wellington, Nelson, and other small ports. The Huanui was a 28m auxiliary schooner (longer than Guru but not as wide) built at Auckland in 1910 by Bailey and Lowe. Photo at right shows the Huanui at Foxton Beach in the 1930s.
World War II saw the end of Foxton as a coastal port. The Government requisitioned Huanui in September 1942 despite vigorous protests and a deputation by Foxton ratepayers and the Foxton Harbour Board, who did not want their port closed.
Huanui crossed the Manawatu Bar outwards for the last time on 30 September 1942, bound for Wellington, then on to Auckland and Sydney to join General MacArthur’s United States Army Small Ships operations around the Papua New Guinea and Solomons war zones.
Huanui did not return to New Zealand – it was reported wrecked on Pine Island in the Whitsunday group north of Mackay, Queensland, sometime between late 1942 and July 1945. Details about the circumstances have not survived.
Also, I understand that the 43ft steel fishing boat Coral V was built at Foxton Beach by its owner in 1976. Coral V later fished out of Whanganui, and is now based at Tutukaka and Whangarei.