HMNZS Coastguard still exists, as of 2018 she was under refit in Nelson,NZ
THE COAST GUARD / KAIKOHE RESTORATION STORY.
The Kaikohe has been refloated, salvaged, redecked, rehulled and rebuilt as an office, studio and showroom for Heartland Timber products, demonstrating the versatility, beauty and workability of New Zealand’s most iconic timber, totara: the timber of wakas, carving, pioneer housing, joinery, all farming and outdoor uses, as the most durable light timber in the world.
1a. Coast Guard1935_Alongside after launching, Berrys Bay, Sydney
1b. 1935. Coast Guard sails to Auckland from Sydney Harbour to Join NZ Royal Navy.
1c. Coast Guard, war time, as minesweeper danlayer in Royal NZ Navy
1d. Coast Guard in RNZN 1950’s
2. 2015 retired fishing trawler Kaikohe. Bro, she’s knackered. I’m firewooding the thing but then again I’d probably sell it for a dollar. Don’t let it sink again
3. 2016. Not again. That rain must have got thorugh that rotten deck. Mate, weren’t you gonna keep checking the bilge pump..
4. Bugger. bigger pump next time. Where’s that chainsaw..
5. Third time lucky I spose but I still reckon the chainsaw’s the go.
6. New totara deck should stop it flooding again. Don’t know about that hull.
7. Jeez mate, thought this heap of sh.. only weighed 50 tons.
8. You owe us a bloody $2000 tyre mate
9. Bloody kahikatea, she’s stuffed, forget it.
10. Young man in need of sledgehammer to drive 4-metre steamed and greased matai ribs into keel
11. New steamed matai skids and totara planking
12. Wrestling team with planks.
13. Zander does it again with his swing move.
14. Real boat builder and his wee mate forcing it in
15. Clamping up steamed totara 6×2 hull planks
16. Steamed and sliced totara. Where’s the effing beer, boss
17. This great lump of Navy steel has gotta go
18. Laminating up the belting with epoxy paste
19. Yea nah, maybe they all were right about putting a chainsaw through the bloody thing.
20. December 2016 launching with restored hull. No mate it’s only breakfast time, no whisky before she’s berthed.
21. The Kaikohe, half finished after only 4,000 hours!
first fit of ex8x4 bulwark rail-fender
Kaikohe May 2020, Nelson private office and samples studio of Heartland Timbers, working on new starboard bulwark and deckhouse
Kaikohe port side December 2019
For further images of rebuild, please see “Totara Specifications and Finishes” Page.
Find out how we can help with your timber requirements
The Nora Niven was a 90ft steam Trawler launched 17th November 1906. Built by Cochrane & Sons of Selby for the Napier Fish Supply Co of New Zealand this state of the art trawler with an Ice Making machine that could produce 3 tons of ice in 24 hour and cool storage compartments for 80tons of fish. In June 1917, a German surface raider, the SMS Wolf entered New Zealand waters. She laid two small minefields in New Zealand waters and sank two merchant ships. One (the Port Kembla) off Farewell Spit, and another (the Wairuna) off the Kermadec Islands. Two fishing trawlers, the Nora Niven and Simplon, were fitted as minesweepers and took up sweeping duties in these areas. Another brief flurry of activity occurred when Felix von Luckner, imprisoned on Motuihe Island after being captured in the Society Islands, escaped and commandeered a small vessel before being recaptured in the Kermadec Islands.
Although mentioned as HMNZS Ikatere in some reports it is unlikely she was commissioned Ikatere towing lifeboats – poss from Niagra sinking
The IKATERE in Auckland ? 1940-50s
Some notes on Ikatere –
Ex-HMNZS Ikatere – During October 1943 the short lines of mines in the minor channels on either side of Rakino Island in the Hauraki Gulf were swept by the Thomas Currell and Kaiwaka, the small motor-vessel
HMNZS Ikatere acted as danlayer.
All but one of the twenty-two mines laid in March 1942 were accounted for. The missing one was probably the failure reported during the laying of the Hauraki Gulf defensive minefields.
Mr. Edward Carlyon Vellenoweth, Honorary Temporary
Lieutenant, granted the rank of Temporary Lieutenant (to
serve under T. 124 X Agreement), to date 1st November,
1941, and appointed H.M.N.Z.S. “Philomel” additional,
for H.M.N.Z.S. “Ikatere,” to date 1st November, 1941.
Appointment as Honorary Temporary Lieutenant terminated,
HMNZS KaiwakaHMNZS Kaiwaka crewHMNZS Kaiwaka (T14) Danlayer – No other information about above news cutting Converted merchant ship, 1941–1945.
HMNZS Kaiwaka Built: 1937 W.G. Lowe, Auckland. Type: Danlayer Pennant No.: T14 Displacement: 169 tons gross, 98 tons net Length: 88.3 ft./26.9 m Beam: 23 ft./7 m Draft: 7.75 ft./2.3 m Propulsion: Motor 145 bhp single screw diesel Speed: 10 knots. Complement: 12 Armament; 1 X light MG, DCs
Kaiwaka was a wooden motor-powered cargo lighter owned by NZ Refrigerating Co. Ltd employed carrying meat to overseas ships off Wanganui.
She was requisitioned on 7 January 1941 for conversion to a danlayer. A danlayer is a small vessel employed in minesweeping operations to lay dan-buoys to mark the limits of the channels swept through a minefield.
She was delivered to the naval authorities on 5 March 1941 and commissioned for service on 21 May 1941 by Lieutenant A. K. Griffith RNZNVR. She was based mainly at Auckland operating with the 25th MS flotilla and occasionally towing targets.
At the beginning of March 1942 Kaiwaka sailed to Suva where she was employed as a danlayer assisting the USN in laying protective minefields in the Nandi area, returning to Auckland on 25 April.
She visited Wellington several times , being temporary port danlayer for two months in 1943.
During October 1943 Kaiwaka and Thomas Currell swept the short lines of mines in the minor channels on either side of Rakino Island in the Hauraki Gulf.
In January-February 1944 she took part in sweeping the independent minefield in the Bay of Islands and in May she assisted with the sweeping of the defensive minefield laid in March 1942 across the main channel in the Hauraki Gulf.
In March-May 1945 Kaiwaka and the minesweepers began a final clearance of the German minefield laid in June 1940 in the approaches to the Hauraki Gulf.
Kaiwaka paid off on 16 September 1945 when replaced by a converted Castle class minesweeper. She was handed over to the Marine Department and refitted but return to her owners was clouded by legal issues over her condition and delayed until 19 July 1947.
