Ōtamahua / Quail Island: quarantine station, ship graveyard and a day trip

From the Lyttelton waterfront, Ōtamahua / Quail Island looks like a low, golden hump in the upper harbour, unremarkable until you know its story. In the space of about a century it served as a farm, a quarantine station for people and animals, the country's leprosy station and a dumping ground for old ships. Since the 1990s volunteers have been turning it back into native bush, and it is now one of the easiest island day trips in the country.

The name

The Māori name, Ōtamahua, is usually translated as the place where children gathered sea eggs (kina), a reminder that the harbour was, and is, a food basket for Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Wheke of Rāpaki. The English name came in 1842, when Captain William Mein Smith saw native quail there. The New Zealand quail was extinct by the 1870s, so the name now commemorates a bird no visitor will ever see.

The island covers about 81 hectares, and its highest point is a modest 86 metres. That makes it walkable for almost anyone, and the views from the top take in the whole upper harbour, the Port Hills and Te Ahu Pātiki / Mount Herbert.

Quarantine and the leprosy station

After a brief attempt at farming in the 1850s, the government turned the island into a quarantine station in 1875. Ships arriving with infectious disease aboard could land passengers here, away from the town. Buildings went up for the purpose, and the island also served as a hospital during an influenza outbreak in 1907.

The most poignant chapter began in 1906, when the island became New Zealand's leprosy station. Over the following two decades fourteen men were sent there, isolated from their families under the medical understanding of the time. Two of them died on the island. The best known is Will Vallance, who arrived as a young man and spent nineteen years there. In 1925 the remaining patients were transferred to a leprosy hospital on Makogai in Fiji, and the station closed.

Little survives of the station itself, but interpretation panels on the island tell its story. It is worth taking a quiet moment at the site, which sits apart from the busier picnic beaches.

Dogs, ponies and the Antarctic

Quail Island has an unexpected link to the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. Several expeditions that sailed from Lyttelton used the island to quarantine and train their animals before heading south, including Scott's Discovery and Terra Nova expeditions, Shackleton's Nimrod expedition and, later, Byrd's expedition of the late 1920s. Sledge dogs, ponies and mules were exercised on the island's slopes while the ships were loaded at the port.

Lyttelton's role as the jumping-off point for Antarctica is part of the town's identity, and the island is one of the few places where you can stand on ground those animals walked.

The ship graveyard

On the island's shore lies one of the harbour's two ship graveyards. From the late nineteenth century into the twentieth, old hulks that were no longer worth repairing were towed here and abandoned or scuttled in the shallows. Accounts differ on how many there are, because some are barely more than a few ribs in the mud, but depending on the tide you can make out the timbers and iron of several vessels.

The wrecks are best seen around low tide, and they are fragile. Look but do not climb or remove anything; they are part of the island's protected history.

Restoration: from rabbits to bellbirds

When the island became a recreation reserve in 1975 it was mostly grass, gorse and rabbits. In the late 1990s a community trust formed to work with the Department of Conservation on restoring it. Volunteers have since cleared rabbits, cats, hedgehogs, mustelids and rats, and planted tens of thousands of native trees and shrubs. Korimako / bellbirds and kererū have returned, and little penguins, shags, oystercatchers and terns use the shoreline. Mice are the remaining mammal pest.

That pest-free status depends on visitors. Check your bags, boxes and boat for stowaway rodents, insects and skinks before you go, and clean seeds and soil off your boots. Dogs and other animals are not allowed on the island.

Planning a day trip

Getting there. A passenger boat runs out to the island from the Lyttelton wharf. Kayakers and private boats can land at the beaches; landing is easiest at Whakamaru (Swimmers Beach), Skiers Beach or Walkers Beach, and mudflats appear at low tide. The wharf is not for overnight mooring. For timetables, use the link in the box below and always note the time of the last boat back.

Walking. A loop track circles the island past the leprosy station site, the quarantine buildings, the ship graveyard and the beaches. The tracks are easy and suit families with young children, though sturdy footwear helps and some cliffs are steep and unfenced. Stay on the marked tracks; unmarked trails are used by planting volunteers. Allow a few unhurried hours to get round with stops.

Facilities. There are toilets at the main beaches and near the hut, but water should be boiled before drinking, so it is easiest to bring your own. There is no shop. Bring food, water, sun protection and a warm layer, because the weather in the harbour can change quickly.

Rules. No fires, no drones, no firearms, no mountain bikes and no dogs. Take all rubbish home.

Overnight. A historic caretaker's house on the island can be booked through the Department of Conservation for small groups.

Combining it with other harbour trips

An island day pairs well with an evening in Lyttelton. If you want more of the harbour, the ferry to Diamond Harbour and the seaside walks around Corsair and Cass bays are covered in our harbour walks story, and our getting to Lyttelton guide explains bus and ferry connections from the city.

For background reading on the island's past, the Wikipedia article on Quail Island gives a useful overview and sources, and our history hub puts it alongside the rest of the harbour's story.