The New Zealander was a three-masted wooden immigrant ship of 1,309 tons, built at Pictou, Nova Scotia, in 1852 and 174 feet long. She arrived at Portland in December 1853 with 465 Irish and Scottish assisted immigrants, one of the largest single arrivals in the young settlement's history, and having landed them she lay in the bay preparing for the return voyage. On Friday 16 December 1853 she caught fire; she was towed to the beach at Whalers Bluff, below where the lighthouse now stands, and burned for several weeks, a spectacle recorded in the town's early chronicles. Her lower hull, ballast and fittings settled into the sand at the northern end of what is now Nuns Beach. Visit Portland's description of a coal ship sunk in 1953 is a garbled version of the same wreck.

What remains is the ghost of a ship: in 3 m of water at the northern end of the beach, the outline of the hull is preserved well enough that, as the Scuba Doctor points out, the January 2017 Google Earth image shows it perfectly, and in the water a snorkeller can follow the line of frames, ballast and iron fastenings around the shape of the vessel. It is a shallow, easy site suitable for snorkellers and for divers doing a shore dive from Nuns Beach, sheltered by the harbour breakwaters and the bluff, and it combines with Lighthouse Reef 240 m to the south-west, a shore and boat site in 1–4 m under the Whalers Bluff lighthouse which Visit Portland lists as a snorkel and beginner dive with wreck remnants visible. Both sit on the same ground as the Lee Breakwater dive and can be done from the same car park. The New Zealander is a protected historic shipwreck on the Discovery Coast section of the Historic Shipwreck Trail; nothing may be disturbed. It is the most accessible shipwreck in Portland and a good introduction to the town's maritime past for families.

From the centre of Portland follow Bentinck Street north past the harbour to Lee Breakwater Road and park near Nuns Beach, or use the Whalers Bluff lighthouse car park above the northern end of the beach and take the path down. Walk to the northern end of the sand; the wreck lies in the shallows there, and the January 2017 Google Earth image, the Scuba Doctor notes, shows a perfect outline of the hull. Lighthouse Reef is 240 m south-west along the beach under the lighthouse.

Boats from the harbour ramps reach both in a few minutes. Portland SCUBA in town supplies air.

Nuns Beach is a low, shallow, well-protected beach with an attached bar immediately north of Portland Harbour, sheltered from the south and west by the breakwaters and the bluff; the Scuba Doctor advises good conditions with a low swell and light north or northerly winds. Easterly and north-easterly weather puts swell onto the beach and makes the shallow wreck and reef surgy and murky. Visibility is limited by port sediment.

High tide gives more water over the wreck outline; at low tide parts of it are very shallow. Diveable or snorkelable on most calm days.

Enter from the northern end of Nuns Beach and snorkel or dive over the hull outline in 2–3 m, following the line of frames and ballast that mark the ship, then swim south-west along the beach to Lighthouse Reef and explore its ledges in 1–4 m before walking or swimming back. Suitable as a snorkel for families on a calm day.

Portland SCUBA – occasional training and snorkel sessions; Portland dive club; independent snorkellers.