HMNZS HAUTAPU v HMNZS IRIRANGI

Did you know that one of the names for the Waiouru W/T Radio Station might have been HMNZS HAUTAPU which means ‘sacred wind’.  In 1956 there was obviously some discussion as to what the Waiouru W/T stations might have been called.  Subsequently HMNZS IRIRANGI was the name finally selected but you never know what might have been in the wind.

As an aside Hautapu had been a locally-built Castle-class minesweeper during the war and sold October 1947 to New Zealand Fisheries Ltd of Wellington, holed at sea in November 63 and beached south of Cape Campbell, towed off April 64 and berthed at Shelly Bay, sabotaged and sunk June 66, and finally cut up by Navy divers 72-73.  As Fred W says there is nothing fishy about IRIRANGI.   Thanks Fred W for the article.