Scale: 1:96. The New Zealand Shipping Company’s passenger ship ‘Ruahine’ (1951) could, at a stretch, carry 310 single-class passengers on a round trip from London to New Zealand, though its usual complement was 267 passengers as well as a large amount of cargo. The ship, whose name meant the ‘Old Lady' in the Maori language, was ordered from John Brown shipyard on Clydebank soon after the Second World War and launched in December 1950.

‘Ruahine’ was a slightly smaller version of the post-war ‘Rangitane’ and ‘Rangitoto’, her two sisters on the UK – New Zealand run. A twin-screw motor-ship, ‘Ruahine’s’ cruising speed was around 18 knots. Normally it went out and home via the scenic Panama Canal route. Passengers travelling from Australia and New Zealand would disembark at Southampton and the ship would then continue on to London to discharge its cargo.

When container ships were introduced, with their much faster turnaround times, ‘Ruahine’ became redundant and it was sold in 1968, renamed ‘Oriental Rio’, and began operating between South America and the Far East. However this was short-lived and just five years later, in 1973, it was broken up in Taiwan.