Matiu - Somes Island

Matiu/Somes Island, Wellington 5012, New Zealand

Matiu/Somes Island is a great place for a day out for a family visit to fossick on the rocky shore and explore the island. (Click the link on the name to see a video.) As a scientific and heritage reserve it is a peaceful refuge for wildlife and a reminder of our heritage. Following a Treaty settlement, it is owned by local iwi (Taranaki Whanui), governed by a Kaitiaki Board and managed by the Department of Conservation. In 1997, the New Zealand Geographic Board assigned the official bilingual name of Matiu/Somes Island in acknowledgement of the island’s remarkable Maori and European history.

The island is open to the public with access by the ferry from Queens Wharf in Wellington or Days Bay. There are no shops on the island so take your own water bottles and picnic. Limited refreshments can be bought on the boat. The weather is like Wellington so if there are cold winds make sure you are warmly dressed.

There is much to explore as the island is a peaceful refuge for wildlife as a sanctuary for native birds, plants and invertebrates. By 1850s it had been largely cleared of large trees, so a replanting programme has planted more than 1000 trees. Giant weta and North island Robins, Tuatara, Skinks and little Blue Penguins now live here.

The first use of the island by people was that Maori as a strategic pathway. Between the 1870s and 1920s it was used as a quarantine station for passengers from ships suspected of carrying infectious diseases as the graves sadly attest and during WW1and WW11 as an internment camp for enemy aliens considered as a threat.

Follow the walking tracks which circumnavigate the island to see stunning views. Explore its rich history by visiting the graves and monuments, old lighthouse and quarantine station and remnants of gun emplacements. In the first half of the twentieth century it was the site of three defence facilities: internment camps for enemy aliens in both World War 1 and World War 2, a degaussing station (1942-45), and a heavy artillery battery (1942-44). Animals were quarantined on the island for over 100 years till 1995. The lighthouse is still in use.

Read the information panels and visit the information centre to learn more on download the DOC brochure https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/wellington/matiu-somes-island-brochure.pdf. The brochure also provides information on staying the night on the island.

Live Bodies by Maurice Gee is a novel based on the Second World War internment of a Vienna born man judged to be a communist agitator and his subsequent life in Wellington. Other books include Island of Secrets:Matiu/Somes Island in Wellington Harbour by David McGill and Janet Hector’s A new cloak for Matiu : the restoration of an island ecology.

MATIU SOMES ECO TREK

WELLINGTON HARBOUR 15 MINUTE SCENIC FLIGHT