The ship was built in 1929 in Auckland by George Niccol for the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company to operate a service from Lyttelton to Kaiapoi via Foxton. Just before the outbreak of WW2 she was sold to the South Taranaki Shipping Company of Patea. She then commenced a service between Patea and Wellington.
Originally built with Twin Fairbanks-Morse diesels giving a service speed of 9 knots, in 1951 she was re-engined with two 8-cylinder Gardner diesels. Foxton had several more owners, this time from Tahiti where she was renamed Namoiata in 1960 then again in 1969 to Tamarii Tuamoto. Her career ended rather abruptly after 47 years on 31 May 1976 when she sank near Moorea in Tahiti.
From Wallace Trickett's oil painting series of New Zealand coasters. For more on the subject, see the book The Era of Coastal Shipping in New Zealand: the small motor ships.
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