Otaihanga railway station was a

flag station In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, s ...

between

Paraparaumu Paraparaumu () is a town in the south-western North Island of New Zealand. It lies on the Kapiti Coast, north of the nation's capital city, Wellington. Like other towns in the area, it has a partner settlement at the coast called Paraparaumu Bea ...

and

Waikanae Waikanae (, ) is a town on the Kapiti Coast, 60 kilometres north of the Wellington CBD. The name is a Māori word meaning "waters" (''wai'') "of the grey mullet". The town lies between Paraparaumu, eight kilometres to the southwest, and Ōt ...

on the Wellington-Manawatu Line in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, when the line was run by the

Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company The Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company (WMR or W&MR) was a private railway company that built, owned and operated the Wellington-Manawatu railway line between Thorndon in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, and Longburn, near Palmers ...

. This line is now part of the

Kapiti Kapiti or Kāpiti may refer to: *Kapiti Island, an island a short distance off the New Zealand coast north of Wellington *Kapiti Coast District, the local government district which includes much of the Kapiti Coast *Kapiti Coast Airport, an airport ...

section of the

North Island Main Trunk The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and se ...

. The station was opened on 2 August 1886. The two ends of the line met at Otaihanga on 27 October, and the last spike was driven at a public ceremony by

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

William Jervois Lieutenant General Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois (10 September 1821 – 17 August 1897) was a British military engineer and diplomat. After joining the British Army in 1839, he saw service, as a second captain, in South Africa. In 18 ...

on 3 November 1886 before more than a thousand people. The first revenue-earning train, a stock train from Longburn to Johnsonville with 355 sheep and 60 head of cattle had run on 30 October. The last spike monument is now in the carpark at Southward Car Museum. The station served

Otaihanga Otaihanga is on the Kapiti Coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is just north of Paraparaumu on the south bank of the Waikanae River and is roughly 55 km north of New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. Its name is Māori for "the pla ...

, a then-rural area between Paraparaumu and Waikanae which is now mainly residential. The platform was on the east side of the line according to Cassells, who shows a blind siding on the west side of the line with the south end joining the main line. The station had a ''waiting shed,'' and was two miles and nine chains (3.2 km) north of Paraparaumu. A 1903 WMR advertisement says that the station will be closed from 30 May 1903. Two references say that the station closed in 1902, but neither give a date. Scoble says that the station closed in 1902. Hoy says that Otaihanga closed in 1902 or in "company days". A WMR newspaper advertisement of 12 November 1902 names the station as one of several stations (along with Khandallah, Tawa Flat, Pukerua and Hadfield) where certain trains would not stop (indicating that the station was still open on 12 November). Otaihanga level crossing looking south

References

Citations

Bibliography

* *

External links

''Otaihanga'' from the Cyclopaedia of New Zealand, 1897

Photo of crowd at 1886 opening ceremony
{{coord missing, New Zealand Rail transport in Wellington Defunct railway stations in New Zealand Railway stations opened in 1886 Railway stations closed in 1903 Buildings and structures in the Kapiti Coast District