Owned neg with copyright
photo late M.Downes
27/8/1949 on her last of five visits and the only one of the class to call at Bluff after WW2.
Built 1929 for NZ Shipping the first of three sisters,followed by Rangitata and Rangitane and the first passenger motorships introduced to the NZ trade.
These three passenger ships together with the cargo liners Otaio.Opawa and Orari were part of a major re-tonnaging by NZ Shipping during 1929 and 1930.
During Novemeber 1940 , NZ shipping was very lucky not to have lost two of the three sisters,Rangitane was captured and sunk by the raiders Komet and Orion, soon after the same fate nearly befell the Rangitiki,when Convoy HX-84 was attacked by the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer. The valiant defence,first by the the Jervis Bay and then the Beaverford allowed most of the convoy to escape as it took over five hours to sink these two ships due to the cautious approach by the Amiral Scheer.
Apart from an air attack off Oran in 1943 she came through the war unharmed.
She recommenced her peacetime service to NZ in 1948.
Ten years later in 1958 she grounded on the Goodwin Sounds,due to faulty charts which led to regular surveys being implemented over this area.
In July 1962 she baecame the last of the class when sold to Spanish Shipbreakers,arriving at Santander 26th July.