Military Basic Training Ends At Waiouru Camp:

New Zealand Army basic training is to move in 2018 to Burnham Military Camp in the South Island.

Waiouru Camp located high on the North Island Volcanic Plateau will however continue to be the army's area where they conduct all aspects of live field firing and combined arms training.

Recruits Training With Anti-Personnel Mines at Waiouru

The 870 sq. km army training facility - and the QEII Military Museum are located mainly to the east of that part of State Highway 1 called The Desert Road that runs through the Rangipo Desert, on land that once used to be a high country sheep station.

Waiouru - On Exercises in 2009 with LAVs and Steyr AUGs.

Ownership of this land area has been disputed by Maori since the 1850s - long before the illegal land grab by John Studholme - a "Canterbury land shark" in 1874.

Most of the leasehold Waiouru Run was taken back into Crown control in 1939 when the large army training camp was built.

- There is a large part of the Military Training area set aside for the herd of wild "Kaimanawa Horses" to live - and DOC conducts regular culls and musters to limit their numbers.

Marty K.