Going Downhill

The Taioma passing the Tauranga Domain, 8 April 1979
Image: Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 07-368

When talking about the tug Taioma, formerly Empire Jane, I always recall hearing of its journey to the Tauranga Historic Village in 17th Avenue. The perils of transporting a 232 tonne tug down the busiest road in Tauranga makes the basis of a good story.  I’m told that on Sunday 8 April 1979 I stood with my family, and many other Tauranga residents, to watch its progress down Cameron Road. I wish I could remember it. Fortunately the man behind the project, Sir Robert Owens, spoke of the day’s events in an oral history recording conducted by James Harstonge in May 1992.

“I’d been chasing this tug around the place for a considerable time and talked to BP who supplied us with fuel. I talked to the boss in Wellington and he said, oh well, you can have it but keep the BP logo on the funnel. So we had to tow it up from Wellington, and it weighed about 340 tonnes so we had a job of getting it on the slip, as it wouldn’t take a 340 tonne ship, so we had to take quite a bit of weight off her. From there the transfer onto the trailer was a tremendous job, and Freightways – they had the heavy haul gear in those days – and John Dale, they gave me a very good rate, very kind, and we got on with the business.”

A tense time as the Taioma is transported down 17th Avenue, 9 April 1979
Image: Tauranga Heritage Collection

“Well from an advertising point of view we all came out of it very well because that day we shifted her up the hill and into Cameron Road, we had to shift power poles and all sorts of things and she came along, and then we got her to the museum and it was getting a bit dark and so we decided we wouldn’t try taking her down the hill. We parked her across the road for the night and then we had an anchor truck behind her with forty tonnes of sand in, that was one of our trucks, and we put it on behind and this driver, a Maori guy, a hell of a nice guy, I was walking with him and there was obviously a bit of tension there and so we started on the dip and she started to go and of course the anchor truck was at an absolute dead stop and smoke started from the tires and she gathered momentum, lost me, I was running at that stage but I couldn’t keep up with her and the anchor truck passed me and the smoke from the tires was terrible. Anyway we got to the bottom and I ran up to the driver and he was the whitest Maori I’ve ever seen in my life. It was a big laugh after that because the rest of the journey was easy, but we ruined the tires.”

Official opening of the Taioma, 23 June 1979. Sir Robert Owens can be seen addressing the crowd
Photograph by Bob Tulloch, Bay Sun
Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 09-063

Officially opened by Sir Keith Holyoake on 23 June 1979, the Taioma became a star attraction at The Village. So much so that an additional charge for going onboard helped to pay for the tug’s maintenance. The trip down Cameron Road had been described as the boat’s last journey. However, with the closure of The Village in 1998, the Taioma eventually travelled to its final resting place on the sea floor off Motiti Island. While this journey was made at night along the Takitimu Expressway, it was still witnessed by many whose nostalgia compelled them to catch a final glimpse of the old tug.

The Taioma travelling down Takitimu Expressway, March 2000
Image: Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 14-0147

References

(i) Several websites including these two record the weight of the vessel as 232 tonnes. http://www.tynetugs.co.uk/empirejane1944.html & https://www.shipspotting.com/photos/1718613
(ii) To listen to the entire recording, which covers many aspects of the city’s development under Sir Bob’s leadership, visit https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/20911
(iii) http://taurangahistorical.blogspot.com/2014/09/memorabilia-from-tug-taioma.html