Lyttelton Harbour

The official place name for Lyttelton Harbour is the dual English/Māori place name Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō.[4] However, this dual name is usually only used on maps or official documents. This dual name is a result of enactment of Section 269 and Schedule 96 of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998.

In Māori the harbour is known as Te Whakaraupō, which translates as Bay of raupō.[5][4] This name came from a swamp of Raupō reed that grew prolifically in the vicinity of Ōhinetahi, or Governor's Bay, at the head of the harbour.[6][7] An alternative spelling, found in older sources, is Whangaraupo, meaning Bay (or harbour) of the Raupo reeds.[8] Captain Stokes of HMS Acheron, who lead a survey of the harbour and surrounding lands in 1849, preferred to use the name Wakaraupo Bay to the then current English name of Port Cooper.[9] However, Stokes preferred name was not used when the harbour was officially renamed Port Victoria upon became a Port of Entry in August 1849.[10] The New Zealand Pilot of 1875, which is based on Stokes survey, gives the Māori place name as Tewhaka.[11]

Commonly Lyttelton Harbour is used, especially in documents meant for a general public audience or in everyday conversation. While this name is not official, it is well recognised and was the name used to refer to the harbour prior to 1998.[12] How the harbour acquired this name is somewhat unclear. John Robert Godley is reported using this name in a speech to the Canterbury Association in 1853. In 1858, it appears officially when describing the electoral boundaries for the Town of Lyttelton, even though that was not the official name of the harbour. The Canterbury Provincial Council established a Lyttelton Harbour Commission in the early 1860s, while the Lyttelton Harbour Board came into existence in 1877, after the Provinces were abolished. Even so, the harbour has been known by other names.

The common original European name for the harbour was Port Cooper, after Daniel Cooper. This name was in common usage by the mid-1840s and was used as a brand name for farm produce from Banks Peninsula and the Dean's farm on the Canterbury Plains.

The name Port Cooper was officially changed and declared to be Port Victoria when it became a Port of Entry in 1849.[10] The Admiralty chart of Lyttelton Harbour, surveyed in 1849, refers to Port Lyttelton or Victoria and sailing instructions in the New Zealand Pilot, of 1875, notes the former name of Port Cooper under the entry for the same.[11] While the official name appeared on Canterbury Association maps of the time, the name Port Victoria does not seem to have immediately achieved widespread usage. Charlotte Godley still refers to Port Cooper in her 1850 letters. The surveyors under Joseph Thomas who surveyed Canterbury in the late 1848 and during 1849 did name the harbour Port Victoria on their maps, after the monarch of the United Kingdom, but the name did not find common acceptance. The name was officially changed to Lyttelton Harbour in 1858, in honour of George William Lyttelton, who was the chairman of the Canterbury Association.[13]

Another less common early name was Cook's Harbour, based on the early explorations by James Cook; the equivalent naming convention referred to Akaroa Harbour as Bank's Harbour after the botanist Joseph Banks.[14]

A treaty settlement in 1998 gave the harbour its official dual name by enactment of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998.[15]

Lyttelton Harbour from the Bridle Path, 1937, Sydney Thompson

King Billy Island was a source of sandstone for Māori that was used for grinding stone including pounamu (greenstone).[16][17] Early European settlers used the adjacent Quail Island as a leper colony in 1918–25.[3] Quail Island is now a nature reserve.[3]

Fort Jervois was built on the island of Rīpapa in 1885–95.[3] Rīpapa was used in World War I to intern German nationals as enemy aliens, the most notable being Count Felix von Luckner.

In 1877 the Lyttelton Harbour Board (now Lyttelton Port Company) started building an inner harbour,[3] and in 1895 the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand started a steamship service on the 200-nautical-mile (370 km) route between here and Wellington.[18] From 1907 it was worked with turbine steamships and from 1933 it was named the "Steamer Express".[18]

However, in 1962 New Zealand Railways started the Interislander ferry service on the 55-nautical-mile (102 km) route between Picton and Wellington. This competing service not only offered a shorter crossing but also used diesel ships that had lower running costs than the Union Company's turbine steamers. The wreck of the Steamer Express TEV Wahine in 1968 was a setback for the Lyttelton service but the Union Company introduced a new ship, TEV Rangatira, in 1972.[18] She lost money, survived on a Ministry of Transport subsidy from 1974 and was withdrawn in 1976,[18] leaving the Interislander's Picton route to continue the ferry link between the two islands.

Lyttelton Harbour is formed from the eroded caldera of an ancient volcano that has been flooded by the sea. The volcano is just one of several eruptive centres that formed Banks Peninsula. Lyttelton Harbour and Port Levy share a common entrance about 2-nautical-mile (4-kilometre) wide, between Godley Head and Baleine Point, with Adderley Head set back slightly.[11] The entrance lies 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 kilometres) from Sumner beach at the south east end of the sandy beaches of Pegasus Bay.[11] From the entrance the harbour runs in West-South-West direction for 7 nautical miles (13 kilometres) with the port of Lyttelton being 4 nautical miles (7 kilometres) up the harbour from the heads, lies on the northern shore.[11] Between the heads the harbour is 8 fathoms (15 metres) deep which gradually reduces to 3.5 fathoms (6 metres) in the vicinity of Lyttelton port.[11] The bottom of mostly soft mud and the only significant navigation hazard between the heads and the port is Parson Rock, a detached submerged rock pinnacle, which is marked, on the south side of the harbour about 200 metres north of Ripapa Island.[11][19] The shipping channel has been dredged so the port can cope with larger container ships.[20]

The prevailing winds in Lyttelton Harbour are from the north-east and south-west.[11] South-west gales can be very violent and have been known to drive ships at anchor ashore from as early as 1851.[21][22][11] In October 2000, 32 boats were sunk and a marina destroyed in one southerly storm with sustained winds of 130 kilometres per hour (70 kn).[23][24] In strong northerly winds a heavy swell rolls up the harbour.[11]

Paul Theroux described Lyttelton Harbour as "long and lovely, a safe anchorage" in The Happy Isles of Oceania.[31]

Lyttelton Harbour as seen from Mount Cavendish

View towards entrance of Lyttelton Harbour

• "Lyttelton Harbour c1916 (images)". Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 1916.

Media related to Lyttelton Harbour at Wikimedia Commons