THE LOST WRECKS OF

WAIRARAPA

By Mark Pacey

 

Its shifty and sly. It’s treacherous and

Trying, and it most certainly has anger

issues. The Wairarapa coast. It’s surprise that the Wairarapa is home to two of New Zealand’s magnificent lighthouses.

 

Now Masterton historian Mark Pacey
has produced ‘The Lost Wrecks of the

Wairarapa’, a book that tells the story of

78 incidents on this wild and unforgiving stretch of coast. Working at the Wairarapa Archive, Mark was keen to tell the stories of the most notable incidents through standalone stories in the local newspaper but the more he uncovered the more fascinated he became, and the project grew into an irresistible series, which grew still further a 300-page volume filled to the gunnels with salty tales, colourful

characters, newspaper articles and

countless photographs.

 

What is it about

shipwrecks that we find so horribly but

wonderfully fascinating?