This station was opened in December of 1909 as Paru, however by the time the Seddon to Ward section of the line was opened on 13 April 1911, it had been corrected to Kaparu. The station is named after the adjacent Kaparu Road, however the origin of "kaparu" is less clear. The best I could come up with is ka paru: (this area?) is muddy. Kaparu is also sometimes used as a personal name. One of the many Māori names for Lake Grassmere is Kāpara Te Hau: wind-blown lake, so Kaparu may be a miss-spelling or abbreviation of this. This shows the danger of translating Māori place names, as they are often abbreviations of an event or a description of the area.
In May of 1951 the station's name was changed again, to Lake Grassmere, probably simply because that's what everyone was calling it. George Skellerup (of gumboot fame) built his solar salt works here in 1943 to provide salt for curing his rubber products. The station was closed in May 1972, although the saltwork's private siding is still in use.
Amazingly, the original shelter shed is still here! Someone had lit a fire inside and earthquakes have knocked it partially off its foundations so it may not be here for much longer. Paru station is 245m down the access road that starts at the cache, but is best viewed as you drive towards the salt works.
Lake Grassmere Station, April 2017.
References:
"Lake Grassmere", Wikipaedia
Merrifield, R: "Beyond Dashwood", published by the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society, 1990
McGavin, T.A.: "A Century of Railways in Marlborough 1876-1976", published by the New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society, 1977.
Scoble, J: "Names and Opening and Closing Dates of Railway Stations", published by the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand, 2010
Churchman, G & Hurst, T: "South Island Main Trunk 1992", published by IPL Books, 1992.
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