Remaining Piece of a Maritime Workhorse

A battered ship's bell is a memorial to a maritime workhorse that plied the seas between New Plymouth and Auckland during the early 1900s. The Rarawa, whose name can still be faintly read on the bell's beaten surface, was a twin screw steamer which made the regular overnight trip from Onehunga to New Plymouth from 1903.

Nautical author Peter Plowman noted the ship lacked much of the grace and charm of her predecessor, the Ngāpuhi, and she tended to be roll heavily. But she plodded on until 1929 when falling passenger numbers made the route uneconomic for her. After languishing in Auckland during the 1930s she was stripped by the New Zealand Navy for parts before her hull was beached on Rangitoto Island. Acquisitive local bach owners lost no time removing other useful parts from her but large sections of the bow and stern are still identifiable today about 200 metres west of Boulder Bay.