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A devastating landslide obliterated the Ngāti Tūwharetoa village of Te Rapa on the south-west shore of Lake Taupō. Sixty people were killed, including the paramount chief Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II. The source of the landslides was an unstable geothermal area known as the Hipaua Steaming Cliffs
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On 7 February the Royal Navy steam corvette HMS Orpheus, carrying British troops, foundered at the entrance to Auckland’s Manukau Harbour. Of the 259 men on board, 189 died in the worst maritime disaster in New Zealand waters.
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Twenty-five gold miners lost their lives as flash floods raged along the Shotover River, north-east of Queenstown, on 26 July 1863.
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On 14 May 1866, the sailing ship General Grant was wrecked in the Auckland Islands, south of New Zealand, with the loss of (ultimately) 73 lives. Ten survivors were finally rescued 18 months later.
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On 4 June the Cromwell–Dunedin express derailed near Hyde, Central Otago, with the loss of 21 lives.
