
Otamahua / Quail Island
Harbour island reserve with quarantine-era buildings, a leprosy colony site and ship hulks.
Location
About this audio guide
This audio guide to Otamahua / Quail Island in Lyttelton Harbour, near Christchurch, follows New Zealand's only leprosy colony and Will Vallance, a Queensland tailor who was its first patient in nineteen-oh-six. It asks what the colony's own numbers leave unexplained, and looks closely at the small house built for him among the pines. Best heard near the replica hut on the hillside.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Corsair Bay Beach
Sheltered harbour swimming cove with a prisoner-built sea wall, jetty, raft and bathing-era remnants.
Halswell Quarry
Former basalt quarry turned parkland, with stone workers' quarters, crusher ruins and sister city gardens.
Awaroa / Godley Head DOC Campsite
Clifftop campsite amid Second World War gun emplacements, with sweeping sea and harbour views.
Governors Bay
Sheltered harbourside village beneath the Port Hills, with a historic stone homestead and garden.
Akaroa
French-flavoured harbour village in a drowned volcanic crater, with a dark colonial-era past.