Whangaparapara Historic

Whangaparapara has a fascinating timber trade, mining and whaling history. Discover the site of the Kauri Timber Company sawmill (1909 -14) including a steam traction engine, cast iron chimney stack, concrete foundations and stone walls. This large sawmill once processed logs rafted by sea from Coromandel and as far as Northland. The first part of this trek takes you along a tramline track, which was in operation after the sawmill had closed. The tramline was used to extract timber from local forests to be taken to Auckland to be milled.

After lunch, the second part of the trek takes you on to the remains of the last-established whaling station at Whangaparapara. Two decades after it’s closure in 1962, local characters Tony Litherland and his wife Carol came to live aboard a homebuilt houseboat ‘Argo’ a 50ft ocean going steel catamaran, moored off the site of the whaling station. Tony is a wealth of information on the history in Whangaparapara. He and Carol enjoy meeting visitors; over a cup of tea on board, hear some of their intriguing tales on life and history in the area..