HINEMOA TO REFIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 172, 23 July 1929, Page 5

HINEMOA TO REFIT.

WORK STARTS TO-MORROW.; ! RENOVATING OLD SHIP. FOR SOUTHERN TOURIST SERVICE. Before leaving for the South to enter the tourist service between Bluff and the We.it Coast Sounds, the former Government steamer Hinemoa will be overhauled and refitted at Auckland. She is lying at anchor off Orakci, but to-morrow she will berth at the Western wharf and a large gang of men will start work on her. The new owners of tne vessel, D. W. McKay, Ltd., of Invercargill, have decided to restore the vessel as near as possible to her original condition. When she first came to New Zealand, 53 years ago, the Hinemoa was luxuriously equipped as a yacht, but her interior accommodation has since been altered several times to suit the nature of her work. In remodelling the accommodation the original plan will be followed. Room will be provided for 50 passengers in two-berth cabins. The saloon will be enlarged, and a wide staircase will connect it with the upper deck. The panelling, now dingy with age, will be renovated, and the impanelled portions painted white. Upholstered settees and armchairs will stand round the saloon, and the furnishings will all be designed to provide the maximum comfort for the passengers. The hull of the ship will be thoroughly overhauled, and later painted white, its original colour. The whole of the work is expected to take a month. When finished, the vessel will go to Bluff to become an excursion steamer taking tourists through the Sounds.