THE LOST WRECKS OF WAIRARAPA

It’s shifty and sly, it’s treacherous and trying, and it most certainly has anger issues. The Wairarapa coast. It’s no surprise that the Wairarapa is home to two of New Zealand’s most 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 into 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?