The killer boulder

The killer boulder
Alice Power and her friend Margaret Moran were enjoying their train ride on the Napier Express on February 20, 1911.
The passenger train ran regularly between Hawke’s Bay and Wellington and was well used.
Before the passenger train there had been a much rougher train for passengers combined with freight.
Twenty-five-old Alice was a tailoress up from Greymouth visiting her friend and on their way back to Hawke’s Bay from Wellington.
As the train was heading down the incline into Paekakariki there was a massive crash. A nearly half tonne boulder had been dislodged from the top of the hill near a quarry and come rolling down, smashing through the carriage that Alice and Margaret were in, along with 20 others.
The driver had seen the boulder break free and fall and had tried to stop but was unable to stop in time.
Unable to stop where it was, the train rolled on to Paekakariki station where it was discovered that several people were badly injured and Alice was dead, her skull fractured by the force of the blow.
Alice was born to Patrick and Sarah who had six sons and four daughters. Patrick had been born in Ireland, travelling to Victoria in Australia before coming to New Zealand. He was a well known wrestler and footballer in his youth.
He was a quarryman and worked for the firm that constructed roads about Greymouth.
Alice’s body was returned to Greymouth by boat where a large crowd of her friends and family escorted her to her final resting place, at the Karoro Cemetery. Within four years she was joined by her mother and father.