Port Hutt
Chatham Islands
43 49.0′ S
176 42.3′ W
But maybe not civilization… We pulled into the Chatham Islands last night around midnight after spending the last few days cruising along with a stiff westerly. We’ve now crossed the 180� east-west divide that separates the hemispheres, but haven’t crossed the date line since the Chathams managed to gerrymander their way onto the left side of it.
The Chathams are an interesting place. We spent the day cruising around the island in our rented SUV, provided to us at a not-so-competitive price by a guy whose family owns most of the main town. Unlike some of the reports we’d heard, people here seem to be pretty friendly, but as I say it’s an interesting place. The Moriori were the first to settle here and had a peaceful population of about 2,500 people going until around 1830. That’s when the Maoris, based in NZ, came over with their newly acquired European guns and essentially committed genocide to clear them from the land. The Moriori were pacifists, and the chiefs decided that they would maintain their customs and refuse to physically resist the Maori attacks. The last surviving Moriori died in 1970, their entire race wiped out.
The place is incredibly isolated. Despite the fact that our guide is convinced that tourism and the economy are going to take off, the population has dropped from 700 to 630 in the past few years. Kids have to go to the main islands of NZ to go to high school, and apparently their families often just move across with them. It’s also an expensive place to live since everything is flown in, so unless you’re raking in money from your quota in their thriving fishery, you’re likely to have a hard time. There aren’t really what you’d call an actual town on the islands - everyone seems to live sprawled all over the countryside. Sheep and cattle appear to outnumber humans by a considerable factor. Visitors, especially on yachts, are few and far between.
But it’s beautiful in its own way: Sandy beaches with huge surf, trees that grow reaching to the north-east along with the prevailing winds, green hills as far as the eye can see, imposing cliffs of sandstone and granite, shipwrecks around every corner… it’s something to behold. Fresh produce gets flown in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we’re planning to hang around into early next week so we can stock up before leaving.
