Passengers 100 years ago
The Kingston Flyer today
the company���s outright purchase of her in 1982, she remains
largely unchanged from the boat that was launched in 1912.
Today she runs regular daily trips across Lake Wakatipu to
Walter Peak high country resort and carries more than 150,000
passengers a year.
Still powered by the original coal fired locomotive type boilers
of her original owners NZR, she burns one ton of coal per
hour, producing 160psi of steam to power her twin 500hp triple
expansion engines, giving the Earnslaw a respectable service
speed of 12 to 13 knots.
The steamer continued its 100th birthday celebrations during
Labour Weekend, making a nostalgic journey to trace its original
freight and passenger route to the Lake Wakatipu high country
lakeside stations and Glenorchy on Sunday October 21. The
cruise attracted almost 300 people, many with strong links with
the upper reaches of the Lake and the TSS Earnslaw.
TSS Earnslaw is a category one
heritage artefact, the first boat in New
Zealand to be afforded long-term
protection through a district plan
The freight service was withdrawn in 1981, but passengers
on the centenary high country station cruise had an insight into
the early years of the operation when she visited Walter Peak
and Mount Nicholas, picking up wool bales, and even loading a
horse on to the bow of the steamship, demonstrating how freight
was winched on board.
Captain Graeme Moore-Carter said, ���It went like clockwork
and was a great opportunity for our crew to showcase the ship
as an original working boat. We had coal stacked on the decks,
just as they used to, so we had plenty in reserve to make the
round trip.���
After leaving Mount Nicholas the steamer passed Elfin Bay, and
Greenstone and Kinloch stations, blasting her whistle just as she
did one hundred years ago to alert run holders she was arriving.
On the final leg of the excursion she steamed towards Glenorchy
where she berthed at the wharf for the first time in 18 years.
���We last came to Glenorchy bringing passengers to the annual
race day in January 1994,��� said Captain Moore-Carter. ���Coming
to the Head of the Lake is a fantastic way to help celebrate the
Lady of the Lake���s centenary,��� he said.
The TSS Earnslaw is classified by the Queenstown Lakes
District Council as a category one heritage artefact, the first boat
in New Zealand to be afforded long-term protection through a
district plan, highlighting the regard with which she is held as
a national tourism icon. One hundred years after her arrival on
Lake Wakatipu TSS Earnslaw is one of the few examples of her
kind of engineering in the world still in commercial operation:
doing what she was designed to do under full commercial
ownership. Real Journeys remain committed to maintaining
the authenticity of the ���Lady of the Lake��� as a traditional, hand
stoked, coal fired passenger steamer that is also, an important
part of their commercial activities.
Following the cutting of the centenary cake a plaque was
presented to the TSS Earnslaw by the Royal Institute of Naval
Architects ���to commemorate 100 years of service and recognise
the historical significance of the largest steamship built in New
Zealand and one of the few remaining coal fired passenger
steamers in the world���.
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VIP.S89
January/February 2013 Professional Skipper 33
