By Charlotte Tonkin
The ship used in Peter Jackson's film King Kong has been sunk in the Pacific Ocean.
It went down, by design, 25 kilometres south of Cape Palliser, off the bottom of the North Island.
The sinking of the 50 metre ship was a slow process to begin with, but with its seacocks open and the Pacific Ocean flooding in, it took less than an hour for a piece of cinematic history to go to her final resting place.
The Manuia finally resting 1.7 kilometres down, in a ship’s graveyard.
For Peter Jackson's King Kong the Manuia was renamed the Venture Two, but for the past five year's the 54-year-old ship has been rusting at Miramar wharf.
As day broke she was towed for four hours to be sunk.
The Greater Wellington Regional Council has sunk four other boats in the same area, which is also an ammunitions dumping ground - 25 kilometres from shore.
After King Kong, Jackson sold the ship but its latest owner is in receivership and it fell to the council to get rid of it.
Harbour Master Mike Pryce says it was imperative something was done about the boat quickly.
“Nobody else wants it and if we don't do something then something will happen to it, it'll break lose or sink and we'll wish we'd done something before,” he says.
Ted Guise has been running Wellington movie tours for five years and he says the Manuia has always been a popular attraction.
He says while he won't lose business from the scuttling, Wellington will miss out.
“People just want to see something from the movies that have been filmed here, and there's just nothing, no sets remaining, no memorabilia,” he says.
Mr Pryce says sinking was the only option, even though there were calls to make it a dive site or a cafe.
During the filming of King Kong the boat took on water and the crew had to abandon ship briefly, this time it was the Manuia's final curtain call.
3 News