Inside Arapuni hydro station’s long high-ceilinged turbine hall with its eight vertical turbine generator units – four installed between 1929 and 1932, two in 1938 and two in 1946. Units five to eight, shown in the foreground, were upgraded in 2012.
Ghosts, unexplained noises and a century of history. Mary Anne Gill toured the grand old Arapuni Dam and met the man who keeps it all running.
Mercury station production technician Craig Russell monitors Arapuni Dam inside the hydro station where unexplained noises are often heard. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
There is something about Arapuni Dam that stays with you.
It might be the view from the top, looking out across the Waikato River. It might be the sense of scale when you start to understand what is hidden beneath the concrete.
Or it might be the stories.
