The “friendly invasion” of more than 45,000 United States servicemen to our country was big news in wartime New Zealand. What made it even more significant was that more than 15,000 of those were US Marines living locally on our land from 1942 to 1944 – in three camps: Camp Russell in Queen Elizabeth Park, Camp Mackay on Whareroa Farm, and Camp Paekākāriki in northwest Paekākāriki. This is one of the biggest stories our district has to tell.

The Kāpiti U.S. Marines Trust was established in 2010 to recapture this story. Our job is to collect, preserve, and exhibit US Marines history in Kāpiti and the wider Wellington region. We aim to keep their story alive through events, hosting, and various forms of storytelling.
Funds raised will be used keep this significant WWII story alive for future generations by:
- expanding our ability to provide high-quality heritage tourism
- creating compelling interpretive signage on the sites of three former US Marines' camps
- linking physical locations to our website and online material with animated QR Codes.
- continuing to tell the WWII US Marines Story on our website.
We warmly invite you to donate to our work, the preservation of our shared history on the Kāpiti Coast!