Saturday, April 10, 2010

Lyttleton Maritime

The Wahine was a ferry from Picton to Wellington (South Island to North) that sank in the late 1960s. One of its life rings was at the Lyttleton Maritime Museum. A storm blew up suddenly, and she was pushed onto rocky ledge. All would have been well, except that the lifeboats were also blown up onto the rocks. This took place during the first two weeks of April. Vic and I are due to board one of the replacement ferries today. :)

You will also see sea glass, collected from the bottom of the bay. (The Lyttleton Bay is in a volcanic valley, so to speak; the Alps, otoh, are a creation of plates pushing against one another.) I asked the curator about whether sea glass is typically found on the shore, and she said, "Only at the head of the bay." We didn't have time to get there!

I'm reading a terrific book on the voyages of Captain Cook, as recreated in the modern day. The bottles at the very bottom are from one of his explorations, salvaged from Dusky Bay.

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