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As gale-force winds ravaged the Wellington region on Monday, a monstrous wave more than four storeys high reared its mammoth head in the Cook Strait – or did it?
While initial data put the wave at 13.6m at Baring Head shortly before midnight on Sunday, its true height will remainunknown.
The monitoring buoy had broken free of its moorings sometime in the preceding half hour, Greater Wellington Regional Council’s monitoring site said.
“The extreme wave heights recorded after 11pm may be unreliable and should be treated with caution. Data from this buoy has been taken offline until further notice,” it said.
The 13.6m reading is no longer visible on the site, which shows the latest wave height before the buoy broke free as 7.1m.
“Guess we can wave buoy buoy to the data it gathered,” one quick-witted social media user wrote.
The Baring Head monitoring station Photo / NIWA/Dave Allen
Such wave heights – as measured between the crest and trough – are not unheard of.
Last year, Earth Sciences New Zealand, a new entity comprising Niwa and GNS Sciences, recorded a 12.14m wave. The same buoy had recorded a 14.88m wave in 2021.
However, it remains unclear whether waves did in fact reach such levels amid the stormy weather.
Harbourmaster Grant Nalder wasn’t sure if the 13.6m measurement was accurate, but said that they knew the waves had reached heights over 10m.
“By the time they get that big, it’s a bit academic how big it actually is,” he said.
“I think it’s gone beyond uncomfortable at that point, it’s sort of dangerous to deal with.”
Ships at sea often encountered waves that tall, but in deeper water they were not as dramatic. In shallower water, such as at Baring Head, the result could be much more imposing.
Nalder said the Baring Head buoy had washed ashore at a nearby beach.
Meanwhile, a navigation marker buoy at Barrett Reef had come loose and ground to a halt between Eastbourne and Mākaro/Ward Island, dragging its chain through the shallow waters.
The Barrett Reef navigation marker buoy has been recovered and towed to Lowry Bay. Photo / Greater Wellington Regional Council
The light on the seven-tonne buoy had stopped working just before the storm, so contractors have used the opportunity to fix it and carry out maintenance. It has been towed to Lowry Bay until it can be refixed at Barrett Reef in a couple of weeks.
In Nalder’s 30 years in the industry, this was only the second time he had heard of buoys breaking free from their moorings.
An “extremely unusual” 193km/h wind gust was measured at Wellington’s Mt Kaukau and multiple severe weather warnings had been put in place for the capital and other parts of the lower North Island.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.
