At the bay
Back in the 1800s, Eastbourne was dotted with baches where well- heeled Wellingtonians came to escape the city for the weekend. Back then poor road access meant they traveled by boat. One of Eastbourne’s seven small bays, Days Bay was originally known as Hawtrey Bay and was settled by George Day whose family immigrated from Kent in 1841. In the 1890s Wellington ship owner J. H. Williams provided the steamboats that brought 3000 to 5000 visitors a day to a resort he’d built for the “blazer, frock and tea- flask brigade”. It’s possible some of those visitors walked up the hill to sip tea on the deck of Niels’ office. In 1914, less than 12 months before J. H. Williams died, his mother gave a large sum of money to help Wellington City Council buy the Days Bay resort from a subsequent owner for public use. Later renamed Williams Park, the wide slash of green in the heart of Days Bay has hardly changed despite the passing of more than a century, Days Bay was also where Katherine Mansfield’s parents had a waterfront home, which proved the inspiration for her story At the Bay: “Very early morning. The sun was not yet risen, and the whole of Crescent Bay was hidden under a white sea mist. The big bush- covered hills at the back were smothered. You could not see where they ended and the paddocks and bungalows began.”