Featherston

Featherston (Maori: Kaiwaewae) is a town in the north of the Wellington Region region of New Zealand. It lies in the Wairarapa, just north of the Rimutaka Tunnel, in the South Wairarapa District. The population was 2,340 in the 2006 Census. The town is on the eastern side of the Rimutaka Range close to the northern shore of Lake Wairarapa. It is 37 km south-west of Masterton and 63 km north-east of Wellington. The Featherston Military Training Camp was a major training camp in World War I. In World War II it became the Featherston prisoner of war camp. The town gained notoriety in 1943 when 122 Japanese Prisoners of War in the camp were shot (48 dead, 74 wounded), after guards believed they were about to be attacked by the...