Tākaka Marble
Tākaka marble (also known as Kairuru marble) is a marble found in the area around Tākaka in the northern South Island of New Zealand. It comes from number of quarries on Tākaka Hill and the Holyoake Valley nearby, which form part of the Tākaka terrane. Impurities differ from place to place. Each of the quarries producing "Tākaka marble" thus gives a differently coloured marble, ranging from white to pink or grey, and sometimes almost black. Kairuru marble is a coarse-grained marble which polishes to a lustrous finish. Quarrying began at Kairuru (on the southeastern, Nelson, New Zealand, Nelson side of the hill) in the early 1900s, and in 1911 was chosen for use in Wellington’s Parliament Buildings (New Zealand), Parliament Buildings. No blasting was involved in getting the marble.The heavy marble blocks for the parliament were transported via a tramline down a steep hillside for to Mārahau, where they were loaded onto scows, to be taken to Wellington for cutting. A tot ...
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