1972 - Power switched on

Ruatāhuna power was finally switched on, on Saturday 9 December 1972, with a celebration at the Mataatua Marae. The sole surviving chieftainess of the Tuhoe Manawaru tribe, Whaitiri Wiringi, pulled on the switch-over rod with her rubber-gloved hand.

Whaitiri Wiringi, was looking forward to watching the television set she had bought the previous year. She had already bought a new electric stove, and her old iron which had been heated for many years on the plates of her wood stove would now serve as a doorstop. Once she could afford it, a washing machine was next to be purchased.