The Quail Island treasure hunt

“HI FIVES, ALL ROUND,” yell the boys. They’re ecstatic because they’ve finally found a clue in the Quail Island treasure hunt.

It’s come at a good time because we’ve missed three other clues and they were starting to get a bit grumpy. You’d think it would be easy to spot a big piece of white card with a letter written on it nailed onto a tree, but it isn’t.

Quail Island has a varied history from staging post for heroic Antarctic expeditions to leper colony, human quarantine and convict labour camp. Now the 81-hectare island in the middle of Lyttleton’s volcanic basin harbour, and a 10-minute ferry ride from the harbour jetty, is somewhere to retreat to … take the kids for a picnic and just relax.

Black Cat Cruises has been running its treasure hunt on the island over summer for several seasons and it’s a fun day trip with a hint of wistfulness as you come across evidence of forgotten lives, echoes of tragedy of a dreaded disease and even the high drama of shipwrecks.

We’ve chosen a perfect day; it’s sunny but a faint easterly breeze is keeping the temperature pleasant.

Tumbling off the Black Cat ferry among other excited families, with a sprinkling of accents from around the world, my nephew Ross and his friend, Gaby, leap as fast as their 13-year-old legs will carry them to hunt out the first clue.

We turn left onto the trail and follow the beach through pine forests to a sheltered bay, where a picnicking family sit on deck chairs and soak in the tranquility of the dappled sunlight and soft lapping of blue water on the sandy beach.

We get to know them quite well as we traipse backwards and forwards through their little spot as we hunt unsuccessfully for the first two clues.

Giving up, we head on up the hill to where explorer Robert Scott kept his dogs in quarantine prior to his Antarctic exhibitions in 1901 and 1911. It’s here we finally find one of the seven clues and the boys are off again.

We stop briefly to look at what’s left of the leper colony that between 1906 and 1925 housed a 12-strong colony of unwanted people, banished to the island and left to fend for themselves with little to do but count the sunrises.

A single grave is a sad memorial for a leprosy sufferer, young Ivon Crispen Skelton, who died a lonely death far away from his family. It lies near the watery resting place of an Indian tea trader, the Darra, whose sea-ravaged ribcage creates a contemporary sculpture under the hot midday sun.

We head along a freshly mown strip of grass that weaves through carpet squares of freshly planted seedlings of native trees and shrubs. We keep being surprised by introduced Californian quails that explode out of the grass. The native quail that inspired the island’s European name was extinct by 1875.

We come across a sign that says we are halfway around the island and realise in horror that we have 30 minutes to get back to the jetty for the 12:30 ferry.

The sign says it’s a one hour walk.

The rest of the island passes in a blur. We whizz past the ballast quarries, give a nod to the volcanic cliffs and barely acknowledge the tragic Ward settlement before barreling onto the jetty just in time to catch the ferry back to the Lyttelton Marina.

Next time we’ll pack a picnic and catch the later ferry.

● Black Cat Cruises Quail Island Adventures depart from Jetty B, Lyttelton Harbour at 10:20am and 12:20pm daily. Adults NZ$40/Child $20

● For more information see blackcat.co.nz

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – Kim Triegaardt

Kim Triegaardt is a journalist, corporate communications specialist and – as regularly as she can manage – travel writer. Kim’s professional career has taken her around the globe, but she calls the New Zealand city of Christchurch, in the South Island’s Canterbury Region, home. Kim is the founder of the corporate communications company Totally Write, which she continues to operate.

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