A bit of a hard-case hotel in remote Sound
Blanket Bay Island Hotel was established on a tiny islet at the mouth of Doubtful Sound in the 1960s.
Although the island is part of Fiordland National Park, the park boundary extends only to high tide level so enterprising fishermen were able to get permission to construct a crayfish freezing plant and refuelling depot over the intertidal zone.
About 1990 a facility for holding live crayfish for export was added. John Lockie says: ’’This depot was manned most of the year and it supplied fuel and bait to the local fishermen. The caretaker would buy and freeze the cray tails and then the fish would be flown out by float plane when the weather allowed, often two plane loads of frozen tails would leave each day.
There have been a number of caretakers at Blanket Bay.
Some of these actively fished within the Sound system as well as managing the fishing depot.
In the mid 1990s the depot became uneconomic and was closed down with the fuel tanks being removed and eventually the freezer decommissioned.
David and Neville Excell now hold the consent for Blanket Bay and have repaired and rebuilt the hut to its present glory.’’
Blanket Bay was named during the Acheron survey of 1851, possibly because of a blanket of fog.
Our largest plant
Southland’s largest plant is red beech. Kauri gets much larger and although there are plenty of kauri trees planted in Southland we may have to wait several thousand years before one outgrows a beech.
The best place to see red beech is along the Milford Road, especially at the Cascade Creek nature walk.
Its favoured habitat is fertile soil in the valley floors rather than higher on the mountainsides like the Silver and Mountain beeches.
Red beech was much in demand for timber.
It is hard, easily split and durable and was used for framing, furniture, handles, weatherboards, skis, mine props, fence posts and even a violin.
Much of early Queenstown is built from Red beech
Drunkenness
Drunkenness and its associated violence and poverty were prevalent in early Southland and opposition to alcohol was vigorous and well-organised.
The International Order of Good Templars started in Invercargill in 1872 and Gore in 1880.
There was also a New Zealand Temperance Society, Blue Ribbon Society, Band of Hope, Sons and Daughters of Temperance, No Licence League, Gospel Temperance Society, United Temperance Council, Young Men’s Temperance Mutual Improvement Society, Women’s Christian Temperance Union and Independent Order of Rechabites.
The message could be fairly blunt as this item from 1889 inserted by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union shows. And no wonder.
Alcohol issues were equally prevalent back then and New Zealand lacked the laws and government agencies needed to intervene to help women and children.
‘‘The Tradesman’s Samples: What other trade can show the like? An old man in Dunedin gets drunk, is sought by his wife, evades her and is next found drowned in the harbour. An elderly woman in Oamaru gets some money, celebrates the event and dies drunk. A woman in Napier drinks aconite in place of the spirit of which she had had too much —dies. An old Victorian resident, crippled with rheumatism and helpless through drink roasted himself alive in the hut he set ablaze when drunk.’’