Time: 2.5 hours
Distance: 2.5 km
Start: Quail Island Jetty
Finish: Same place (it's a loop [anti-clockwise])
Date: Friday 20th November 2020
During the off-peak season (April - November), the ferry to Quail Island leaves Lyttelton Jetty at 10.15 am and returns at 3:30 pm. You can buy tickets online at Black Cat Cruises for a fairly pricey $30 adult return. We boarded the boat with a class of secondary school students and within about 15 minutes we landed at the island wharf and disembarked.
Quail island has a checkered history: Pre-European Maori used the island for fishing and food gathering and O Tamahua means "place to gather seabird eggs". In 1842 Europeans first set foot on the island and named it after the seeing native quail (now extinct). The Ward brothers bought the island in 1851 for farming but were drowned within the first two months while on a boat excursion getting firewood from the mainland. Brutal. Later the island boasted a quarry and a leprosy colony.
We checked out the map and rapidly (to get ahead of the students) decided to walk the Quail Island Walkway which circumnavigates the island in an anti-clockwise direction. We headed up the hill, whilst practicing our Te Reo, to the farm buildings and the Otamahua hut. At the top of the hill a quail ran past (non-native). You can stay overnight in the hut (book with DOC).
We continued on the grassy path to the shipwrecks. The tide was high and the ribs of one ship's carcass could clearly be seen: the Darra, a "sleek barque" built in 1865 for the Orient Line. Apparently thirteen ships were abandoned here between 1902 and 1951. New Zealand Geographic has a detailed history. We descended off-piste to the beach to get a closer look, while two oyster catchers complained loudly. The water was clear.
With some rock scrambling we climbed out of the bay and through the pines back to the track. Past the basalt quarry (once used as ballast for sailing ships), there was a side track up to the summit (86 meters??!) with super views over the harbour.
The track descended down to skiers bay. We looked in at the reconstructed leper's hut and read about poor old Ivan Skelton (actually quite young) who contracted leprosy in Singapore and was quarantined on Quail island for five years before dying there (possibly of loneliness).
We decided to stop for a swim and lunch at skiers bay (to avoid the students who could be seen in the distance at swimmers bay). The bay is very tidal and the swim was shallow, muddy underfoot but absolutely lovely! Afterwards, Sharyn flourished from her small backpack a plethora of delicacies: four types of cheeses, salami, avocados, tomatoes and crackers. We sat in the sun and watched the ducks (or did they watch us), chatted and lost track of time.
Suddenly we realised with horror that we only had 15 minutes to get to an earlier ferry, sent especially to take the students back at 1.30. If we missed it we would have to spend another two hours on the island. Heaven forbid! We got an inkling of how it must have felt for Ivan Skelton to be stuck here. We packed up pronto and scuttled off at high speed. On the last hill we caught up with and overtook the students who were ambling along leisurely.
Before we knew it we were back on the ferry and then stepping onto the jetty in Lyttelton again. Then it was straight up the hill and into the Lyttelton Coffee Company for smoothies and flat whites.
