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First novel: Wellington writer Kerry Harrison's book is based on the 1968 Wahine disaster. Wellington writer Kerry Harrison remembers witnessing the Wahine disaster as a child living in Seatoun. The memory inspired the Wellington East Girls' College English teacher to write her first novel, set in the aftermath of the tragedy. "I found it very affecting as a child seeing the boat lying there in the sea," she said. "We heard the voices on the boat and saw the lifeboats coming in, although we weren't allowed down on the beach." Her novel, Wahine, tells the story of what Ms Harrison described as a "tumultuous" New Zealand family, whose father disappears in the 1968 storm. "Probably like most first novels, it's autobiographical to a certain extent, but I created and imagined quite a bit of it," Ms Harrison said.