Built in 1967 by the Taikoo Dockyard & Engineering Co for the USSCo’s Trans-Tasman cargo service. She was sold to the NZ Shipping Co in 1976 and renamed Coastal Range. Following the end of the steamer Express Service, she briefly operated as a cargo service between Lyttelton and Wellington.Sold in 1979 to Faros Maritime Co, Monrovia she was renamed Inchos Express II and owned by Inchos Shipping until 1980. Sold to Seastar Navigation Co of Piraeus in 1984 she was scrapped in Yugoslavia in June 1985.
Additional notes: This was the start of the roll-on roll-off (roro) ships on the New Zealand coast with a weekly service between Auckland, Lyttelton and Dunedin. It also had a 15-ton crane to load containers. She was sold after 9 years to the Shipping Corporation NZ and for two years served on the Wellington Lyttelton service after the passenger ferries were withdrawn.
Hawea III MV, NZ Ship and Marine Society