Matiu/Somes Island

Yesterday (Sunday) I headed out to visit a small island in the north end of Wellington Harbour which is currently a nature preserve, and also has an interesting history of quarantines and internment. Everyone from arriving immigrants in 19th C. to Germans/Italians/Japanese during WWII to animals large and small.

Now Matiu/Somes Island (dual Maori/Euro name) makes for a lovely little afternoon trip for locals and visitors. A small ferry from a downtown wharf gets you there in around ½ hr and costs about $20NZD return. The trip itself (not the destination) felt a bit like heading out of San Francisco's piers and heading over to Tiburon , or cruising around the Gulf Islands.

The highlight of the outbound trip was the small pirate, complete with bandana, tricone hat and a Jolly Roger flag. He was about 6 yrs old and very excited to be going camping with his mom, dad and baby sister. The island has resident rangers and a few folks can camp rough with a DOC permit. He was so pleased to have his picture taken, as you can see and thanked me for doing so. He was even more excited when I gave him a Canadian flag pin. “I have a book called Canada ABC!”

Once on the island a ranger gave us a fairly pedantic intro and put us through the exercise of rifling through own bags for unwanted pests (bugs, rodents etc.) The rest of the afternoon I happily wandered around the circuit trail, up to the old gun encampments, ate lunch near the old quarantine buildings, shot a chipful of pics. Wildlife spotting wasn’t great - not even a skink or gecko in sight! Saw a few birds, mostly green parakeets too difficult to photograph in the shrubbery. Damn them!

However, the sun was shining bright, the air was fresh, my picnic from the Sunday Market superb and the views of the harbour and city...breathtaking.