-
The eruption lasted six hours and caused massive destruction. It destroyed several villages, along with the famous silica hot springs known as the Pink and White Terraces. Approximately 120 people, nearly all Māori, died.
-
The Strongman Mine was an underground coal mine north of Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand from 1938 to 2003. On 19 January 1967 a gas explosion in the mine killed 19 miners. In 1994 the original mine was replaced by the Strongman 2 mine further up the Nine Mile valley. The Strongman 2 mine closed in 2003.
-
On Tuesday, 18 November 1947, a fire engulfed Ballantynes department store in central Christchurch, New Zealand. 41 people died; 39 employees and two auditors, who found themselves trapped by the fire, or were overcome by smoke while evacuating the store complex without a fire alarm or evacuation plan.
-
The worst railway disaster in New Zealand's history occurred on Christmas Eve 1953 when the Wellington-Auckland night express plunged into the flooded Whangaehu River just west of Tangiwai, 8 km west of Waiouru. Of the 285 people on board, 151 were killed. The tragedy left a nation in mourning, and stunned the world.
-
The sinking of the ferry Wahine happened on the 10th April 1968. Fifty-one people lost their lives that day, another died several weeks later and a 53rd victim died in 1990 from injuries sustained in the wreck.
-
In 1985, French secret service agents planted two bombs and sank our ship the Rainbow Warrior. One crew member was killed. It was an instance when a government chose to respond to peaceful protest with deadly force. But peaceful protest has prevailed.