nzflag(1).gif (9615 bytes)        S/V TETHYS

Touring New Zealand by Car
December 2000, February, March 2001
Lyttelton Antarctic Harbour
Lytteltons claim to fame comes from being a staging harbour for Antarctic Exploration. Shackleton, Scott and Ross all staged their expeditions from this harbour. Quail Island, a former leper colony was used to quarantine the horses and dogs used in the expeditions.

Quail Island can be seen in the background of the photo on the right.

Today Lyttelton is a deep sea container ship port.

Lyttelton is also the site of a 19th century timeball signal station. From 1870 to 1941 the signal station at the top of the hill above the town dropped a ball at 1:00 P.M. every day signalling 12:00 noon GMT to all the ships in the harbour so that they could determine the error in their chronometers..

The signal station also repeated signals from the signal station at the mouth of the harbour to Customs officials as ships reported their approach.

 Lyttelton Harbour view (10491 bytes)
Timeball signal flagpole (7270 bytes) The ball at the top of the tower is still operational. This was the first station in the world to record Year 2000 midnight by dropping the ball on time with the help of the U.S. Navy transmitting the exact time.

The flagpole beside the signal building was used to repeat the flag signals. Today the flags spell 'welcome'.

 

 Timeball (7530 bytes)
Lyttelton Harbour has several examples of steam driven ships still in use.

The Lyttelton, built in Scotland in 1907 is used as a tour boat. It was built as a tug for Lyttleton Harbour. Unfortunately the Lyttelton only sails on Sundays when we are scheduled take a scenic ride on the Trans Alpine train.

The second is the Peraki, a dredger. Unfortunately the Peraki has been sold to the Philipines and was raising steam to leave the harbour. The Peraki had been in service since the 1960's and had kept Lyttelton Harbour and approaches clear of mud and silt. She will not be replaced.

 

 Peraki dredge (7892 bytes)
From Lyttelton we took a twisty road to Akaroa
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