Round the world traveller pays a visit to Southland

ABOUT THE SOUTH

Did you know . . . Southland’s first and only visit by a round-theworld dugout canoe was in February 1903. Measuring just 11.6-metres long and weighing four tonnes, the Tilikum was the world’s smallest ocean-going sailing craft.

She had been constructed about 1860 in Canada from a hollowed cedar log and was fitted with masts and sails in an attempt to prove that the British Empire could match the feat of American Joshua Slocum who had sailed solo around the world a few years previously. The peculiar Tilikum arrived in the estuary on February 21 and was displayed for a week before continuing her voyage to Dunedin. She is preserved in a Canadian museum.

Southland’s largest harbour is Bluff Harbour, with an area of around 52 square kilometres. The largest harbour in New Zealand is the Kaipara Harbour at 947 square kilometres.

Southland’s missing island is Emerald Island, first reported by the captain of the Emerald in 1821. It graced charts for many years, but despite being described as having high peaks, it has not been seen again. Either it was trick of the light or a massive iceberg.

It is one of 15 non-existent southern islands that were once charted.

Southland’s first scientists were the naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, who accompanied Captain James Cook on his 1770 voyage. Naturalists Johann and George Forster and astronomers Wales and Bailey visited Fiordland with Cook in March 1773.

Southland’s largest penny pile consisted of 148,800 pennies donated for an IHC fundraising appeal organised by the Lions Club in 1963. The pile was to have been toppled by wrestler Lofty Blomfield, but he auctioned off the privilege for an additional £10.