Taieri Recreational Tramping Club

*Click this Wikipedia entry on Quarantine Island, if you wish.
*Click here for a PDF fact sheet of the original Quarantine Island
*And here is the St Martin Island Community web page. Click the photo at the bottom to see original buildings!
*Click a quarantine-island-botanical-report for a (bit dated) 1987 report on the island’s vegetation, if you like.
30 kms PJP to Back Beach.

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5.  4/10/2023.  Combined. Quarantine Island. Grade 2, Leaders: Ross and Wyn Davies, Maria MacNee, Jenny Finnerty.

Twenty-eight trampers and hikers enjoyed a great day out with calm and temperate weather, a little cloudy, not the blue skies and sun the forecast promised. Perfect weather though for the crossing to Quarantine Island. Our day had started with a little confusion regarding numbers and meeting places but we all managed to get ourselves to Back Beach carpark safely (Julie and Viv might tell a few tales about their driver though, lol).
We walked off for morning tea in Lady Thorn Dell…

… where we enjoyed fabulous views of the busy Port Chalmers.

Great photos and history on display at the lookout platform. Little remains of the dry dock and ship building industry that once provided for a vibrant community in the 19th and 20th centuries.
From Lady Thorn Dell we enjoy a leisurely meander through the town cemetery which it has to be said seems to hold an unhealthy interest for those of us still in the land of the living? Indicative of the average age of our enclave perhaps…? Nonetheless, interesting history to be gleaned from those old stones and bones.

Coming back down to the Port we get a stunning glimpse of Carey’s Bay…

… before heading back to the wharf and Boiler Point where Captain John welcomes us aboard the island ferry the “Vivienne J”. After John treats us to a grand jaunt around the harbour basin (greatly appreciated by all on board)…

…we “set sail” for the island, not bad value at $20 return! One wag commented that “It was very nice of Bruce to organise a cruise for Jenny on her birthday….”

Arriving at the jetty on the island, the skeletons of the Waikana…

… and the Oreti form a kind of decaying guard of honour as we head up to the Lodge for lunch.

After lunch we explore the island starting with the restored Married Quarters building in which is housed a beautifully modelled miniature of the Waikana as she was when in service as a harbour ferry.

Regenerating native bush rang with the sound of native bird life as we enjoyed an easy 30-minute walk around the island.

Our walks included visiting the sad sight of the island’s cemetery where the remains of 72 immigrants lay, half of them children, in unmarked graves. The small mounds are especially evocative. A sobering reminder of the fate of many immigrants who survived the arduous journey from the other side of the world in search of a better future, only to perish of scarletina and other deadly diseases in quarantine before they even set foot on the mainland.

Heading back across the harbour our day is nicely rounded off by afternoon tea at the Santosha Cafe in the Port.

A wonderful day out enjoyed by all.
Maria

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4. 12/2/2020. Quarantine Island. Leaders Janice and Peter

43 hikers and trampers parked at Back Beach, Port Chalmers and walked along the wharf
edge past the stacks of logs. No cruise ship in port this time. Headed up the hill to our
morning tea spot at the beautifully maintained Lady Thorn Dell.

The lookout gave us good views of the container wharf which was busy with a container ship in.

Meandered along the road , through the cemetery, and down to the main Aramoana road.

A small detour took us down to the new extended fishing wharf at Boiler Point.

Carried on to the main street of Port Chalmers and up the hill to the lookout and Ralph Houtere Sculpture Park.

Back down a bush track to Back Beach. With half an hour to go before the boat was due to arrive
most of us lunched in the car park. Were entertained by a heap of shags and gulls feasting
on some small silver fish. By this time the weather had cleared from a slightly drizzly misty
start to a very pleasant sunny calm day. Perfect for a boat trip.

 

Another two hikers arrived, which brought our numbers up to 45. Because of the numbers, the boat did two trips to the island. We were met by a very enthusiastic knowledgeable volunteer who took us to the old married quarters and gave us a very detailed overview of the history of the island.

Photo and Caption Clive -“Quarantine Island chapel”The renovations to this building have now been completed. Following this the majority of the
group did the half hour walk round the point, through the old cemetery, returning to the
wharf to be transported back to the car park.

Refreshments (including a yummy Devonshire tea for some of us) were at the historic Careys Bay Hotel – a pleasant end to the day sitting in front of the hotel overlooking the boat harbour.

Jan and Peter.

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3. 18/3/2015. Quarantine/St Martin Island from Port Chalmers. Leaders: Jan and Peter.

The weather was atrocious. Twenty-four Hikers and Ramblers arrived at the Back Beach car park. The rain fell. The wind blew.  Leaders had told us our ferry to the island wasn’t to leave till 12.30 p.m. The sensible ones of us I believe waited out the morning in the shelter of their vehicles. The sillier ones were immediately into Parkas and gloves. Storm gear.

And off we set. Back the way we had come. Past the never-ending stretch of stacked logs, past the cruise ship, through the main intersection, up and along the road behind the church, across the railway line and on to Lady Thorn Dell. Here we gathered in the most sheltered (??) spot for morning tea. Few sat and even fewer partook. It was wet and cold.

Then surprise, upon the scene came up the two Lions Club members we had met as we entered the Dell, engaged in tidying the place up in preparation of a forthcoming important visit. They welcomed us and told us everything we could wish to know about the Dell’s history, from early quarrying of the rock, which initially was a hill stretching out to the water’s edge and whose stone now graces many of Dunedin’s buildings, notably the Railway Station, on through its life as a rubbish dump and subsequent clearing, to enable the further rhododendron planting and the present day. Wonderful.

Whereas we had earlier briefly entertained the idea of taking hot coffee in the warm embrace of Careys Bay Hotel, more time had now elapsed, so it was back down to the town,…

…in search of coffee that was more local. But the town was asleep, despite the cruise ship’s presence. No tourists. No cafes.

So we wandered around a bit, eventually sloping off in twos and fours back to the cars. We lunched separately, some in cars, some in other shelter, some exploring, until ferry-time arrived. Jan collected our ten dollar notes for paying the fare, and we boarded.

A lovely boat. Powerful too. The channel was a bit rough but in the lee of the island, all was smooth. And the sun had appeared and the rain had gone. A brightening-up afternoon. Hurrah.

It was no trouble alighting at the new wharf. The new island warden filled us in on local history, a salient point being that the St Martins Island Group name had very recently given way to the Quarantine Island Group name. Two other groups were there on the day, one of them being a two-day Tokomairio School Group. Our stay was a two-hour one, set to return at 3.00 p.m.

The walk round the top of the island was only half an hour. Lovely bush. The wind was strong on the sou-west side, the one exposed towards Dunedin, but the bush part of the track provided good shelter.

Having walked the main track,…

…some wandered off towards the old graveyard and the Portobello end of the island.

The few sheep on the island were sheltered under a small plantation of pines. A brick chimney was all that remained of the old hospital.

Back towards the main buildings, the married quarters, once two-storied but now just a large hall, had been straightened up from an earlier lean, looking good in its fresh coat of paint.

The ‘wanderers’ joined the others waiting in the sun till ferry-time arrived.

All went smoothly as we reboarded and ‘sailed’ (?) back to the car park. A significant point, picked up from the crew, was that among them was the boat’s present owner, and the new owner , the one of the Monarch. This boat had apparently had a capacity for 33 passengers.

All agreed it had been a good day, all round. A day with a difference. A day to re-establish connections between Ramblers and old and newer Hikers.

Thanks to Janice and Peter for the day. – Ian.

2. 22/4/1998 St Martin/Quarantine Island Camp

1. 5/3/1997. Martin Island Cruise.