The Island
The Island duly appeared dead ahead, and we all watched as it slowly took form. "Looks like Kapiti", someone said and that is just what it did look like. It was somewhat bigger but the same general shape and just as covered in bush.
We eventually steamed between the main island and some offshore islets and anchored off a point called Fishing Rock. Our anchorage was about a kilometre offshore and all the unloading of passengers and stores was done by surf boat which plied between Fishing Rock and the ship. Mac, the Met guys, and some of the others went ashore right away. I was told to stay aboard with Dick and Bill to help unload.
The next day I went ashore for my first good look at my new home. The surf boat did not actually touch shore but anchored a few metres off the rocks. A boom was swung out over the boat and a large wicker basket was lowered. Three or four of us clambered into this and were hoisted up, swung round and dumped unceremoniously onto a concrete pad We had arrived!
This is our landing place
Fishing rock as it was known in the Bell families time must have been just that, a large rock, one of many which jutted out into the sea and made a convenient place to fish from. Large proportions of these rocks have since been covered with concrete to make a landing stage and bottom base for the flying fox.
A path led from the stage round a shingle beach and up the cliff to the top stage of the flying fox and the road terminus.
A ramp that can be seen in the lower picture led up to a shed, which contained the winch mechanism, a dinghy, the tide recorder and other odds and ends.
Unloading was still going on and took all priority, so we were immediately put to work. We met a few of the outgoing party then it was all hands to the job of shifting stores. Time to look round later.
Fishing Rock was the main landing place, but it was completely exposed to the weather, a fact that caused us some problems later. The rock was, of course, at sea level, but to the landward side were high cliffs. People had to climb up a zigzag path and goods were transported by a cableway called a "flying fox". Stores were landed from the surf boat by a crane that consisted of a boom, which was manually swung out, and back, and a motorized winch which did the lifting.
But not in this weather!
Everything was dumped on the concrete pad and then manually loaded on to the flying fox platform. A ring on the connecting phone signaled the fox operator at the clifftop who winched it up. Here the supplies were transferred to a truck or tractor and trailer and taken to the living area four kilometres away.
THE FLYING FOX.
One of the really notable things to take the eye on first landing on Fishing Rock is the great looping span of the flying fox lifting device. The reason for its being there is obvious, the landing area is at sea level whereas all the facilities are on the cliff top where the road ends. The only other access is the very steep path up the cliff. So short of carrying everything up, obviously not possible. The flying fox was installed.
Let me try and describe it. There is one span so it is anchored at top and bottom. Between the anchor points is strung the main cable, this bears the weight of the load and provides a path for the carrier which rides on the cable on flanged wheels. The carrier carried a winch which was in turn connected to a tray. Whatever had to be transported was usually loaded in the tray.
Above the main cable is the so called button cable. This ingenious device is a cable, which has some six, or so protuberances welded to it at intervals down the line. They are called buttons. These buttons are all different sizes, with the smallest at the top and the largest at the bottom. Hanging from this cable are things called, not surprisingly, hangers. These hangers hang down passing each side of the main cable and contain a pulley at the bottom. The hangers sit on the button cable and are free to slide up or down it. They have holes that vary in size to match the buttons, smallest in the topmost hanger to largest for the bottom one.
Now when the carrier is lowered down the main cable the hangers slide down with it. The first five ride over the first button, the sixth catches and stays in place. Same with the next button and hanger, and so on down the whole cable. The hangers spread out evenly down the system. When the carrier is hauled to the top the hangers are all collected on the way up and arrive at the top with the carrier.
The flying fox drops down to Fishing Rock. Note the
three cables and one of the hangers. The carrier is at the bottom.
Even with the hanger system the towing cable was quite heavy when fully out. Great care had to be taken when lowering the carrier as it was done on the winch brake only. You could only tell when the carrier reached the correct spot at the bottom by marks on the cable as it ran off the drum.
Any inattention and things rapidly got out of hand. The carrier would hit the bottom stop and the cable would continue to run out under its own weight forming loops which could and did pull the cable right off the winch drum .
The top of the Fishing Rock flying fox.
One thing we were strictly prohibited from doing was riding on it. I never did, although the temptation was always there as the climb up the cliff path was really exhausting. One who shall be nameless did ride it once but the paleness of his usually tanned face and his quiet demeanor when he arrived at the top said it all.
The important thing was to get the boat unloaded as quickly as possible because of the exposed anchorage, so the first couple of days all available people were assigned to this chore.
As it happened, on the third day the wind and sea got up and unloading was called off. The ship weighed anchor and sailed round to the secondary unloading place. This is a small bay called Boat Cove, and is on the other side of the Island about 8 or 9 kilometres away over a very rough road.
Someone had high hopes for Boat Cove as a place for landing and loading cargo. A quite extensive concrete wharf had been built and a causeway constructed to join it to the bottom of a flying fox. This fox was even bigger and higher then the fishing rock one.
The Boat Cove Causeway!!
However the sleeping beast under Raoul woke and produced an earthquake that brought a large part of the cliff down on the causeway and part of the wharf making it unusable.
We unloaded a lot of stores there, but it all had to be carried round to the bottom of the fox over the earthquake rubble. Not easy, even a crate of beer gets very heavy after a while.
For all that Boat Cove was a beautiful spot with very clear water and great fishing.
It was something of a trek to get to it as the road was basic to say the least, however we often went there on days off or for work purposes.
Unloading continued for another day but again the weather worsened to the point where even comparatively sheltered Boat Cove was unusable. The captain got all his outgoing passengers aboard and sailed for New Zealand taking half our stores with him!
It was an odd feeling watching the Holmglen sail round the point and disappear. We were now alone. Anything that happened from now on we had to cope with ourselves.
Holmglen at Boat Cove
The only good thing to come out of all this, was a midyear visit would be needed to bring us the rest of our stores. This is good because we would not normally get a midyear visit, which of course meant more mail and other goodies.
The smaller picture on the left shows Mac standing on the cliff top overlooking Boat Cove. The flying fox cables can be seen descending down to its base in the middle of the picture.