Well... Cable Bay may have been the first telegraph link to the
rest of the world but it still doesn't have Vodafone internet reception.
"You'll get it up the hill" was the response from the camp owner...
"There's a short cut through the back of the camp"...
So off I went...
I started off past the house and through the paddocks...
And farm as directed...
"Up to the water tanks and keep going"... Mmm
how far I wondered?
It was a nice gradual walk...
And there's my goal... The highest point...
Looking back...
Onward and upward...
I'm getting higher now...
I reached my goal... The white marker on the top of the hill.
It was also a good try out for my new boots and new thick padded
socks. I can walk anywhere now!
I'm sitting resting here and communicating with the world
and in particular one of my daughters who is on holiday in
New Zealand from America and who I am meeting up with tomorrow.
Now the decision, which way to go next. I could have gone back
the way I had come but that seemed a bit unadventourous... So
I can go this way which would take me in a loop...
Or this way which wold take me? Well I don't know where.
I decided on the loop and set off again.
This is half way and looking out to Tasman Bay.
I felt very high up, nobody else around but here's another
white marker post.
I continued upward...
Some disinterested...
And curious cows...
And then the top, a gate and a hunt for the next marker...
Which was directly down the fence line in the middle of
this photo. Mmm... I was glad of my boots and that I
had taken my hiking stick. There was no distinct track
just faint sheep tracks and lots of dry slippery grass.
But, I'd gone up so I had to go down!. Half way down,
you can clearly see the boulder bank that connects the
mainland with Pepin Island.
And looking down on the camping ground... My bus in sight!
Down the bottom this information shelter...
And looking back to where I'd come from, it doesn't
look so high now! I think it's Sentinel Hill?
Two ships, 'Hibernia' and Edinburgh' laid the cable from Australia
to New Zealand in eleven days. An account of the cable landing at
Cable Bay was given by the 'Colonist' newspaper...
"In the inlet were the large ships, about a dozen small boats
and straight in front of the beach with the white waves
dashing upon it, and through them was seen the cable with
a swarm of human beings around it toiling to their utmost."
The cable came ashore and into a building of four thicknesses
of timber. the cable passed onto a solid cedar topped cable and
then through a stone cemented passage and underground to
the cable house.
The cable originally came ashore at Nelson because of
the pre-emminence of the South Island at the time.
The first overseas cable link was worked by a mirror galvanometer.
Words were indicated by flashes of light and to operators
were required, one to watch the flash, the other to take dictation.
This was later superceded by recorder equipment which
gave a permanent recording of the message.
Cable Bay had a population of about 30 people and the
station was a self contained village... Housing, operations
room, billiard rood, three stables and a small sawmill.
Boys from all over New Zealand joined the station as cadets
and received training as cable operators, some of whom were later
sent off to distant places in the Far East and Singapore.
There was great excitement as the colonists could now communicate
with friends and relatives in England by telegram which
only took four days instead of by letter which took
up to six months..
My one night stop over here was too short so I' be going back sometime.
Perhaps I'll take the higher track... Or go fishing... Or walk
round Pepin Island... So many things to do!
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