The Diary: October 1878

Jeanie nearly pulled the legs of me this morning about 5 o'clock to come and see land. It is what they call 'The Traps' in the map but the sailors call them 'The Snares' for a bye name. She says 'Oh Jamie as sure as you are there it is land - O'. So I got up to please her and went on deck and saw it. In fact you never saw anything as like snares in your life. We were very close on them so that we had a fine view of them. There are first 4 small rocks like this:-

Then there is a long ridge like this:-

They have a very dangerous look about them but we are passing them very speedy so as to be at Signal Hill by early morning and get the pilot to take us into the harbour.

This is a fine morning but cold. Our ship is standing right in front of the Otago heads this morning waiting for the pilot and we are all astir, dressed in our best clothes waiting the arrival of the immigration officers. It is now 12 o'clock and the pilot is coming over in a small boat pulled by 8 men of wars men. They all stop on the heads at the lighthouse so when he sees a ship he telegraphs to Port Chalmers for a tug. It is now 2 o'clock and we see the tug in sight - we are all emotion at the sight of land. The pilot says we can't get over the bar till 4 o'clock. This is a long 2 hours I can tell you. 4 o'clock comes, they give the tug the hawser and away we go, slow and steady we pass in a very nasty opening and along a very sandy beach. We go along this beach - it is a nice sight to see all the houses and gardens. We pass by the Maori camp - we come in sight of Port Chalmers - we come within half a mile off it and we drop our anchor at a little after 5pm on Wednesday afternoon 2nd October after not a bad run on the whole of 82 days. We are not long arrived 'till the immigration officers came in a neat little yacht, but they say that the barrack accommodation is not ready so we will have to remain on board till Friday. But we are not so bad for there is a boy comes over with milk from the shore and he gets emptied soon. Then we have fresh meat and fresh bread - roast beef for breakfast and dinner ... soon ... in Dunedin. You have no idea of the wonder of seeing all the boats that are bringing over people to visit - looking for friends. There has arrived a ship in Port Chalmers that left 19th May to come out with 408 passengers and took 118 days, so we have much reason to be thankful unto the Lord for all his mercies and loving kindness.

Written by James Harrison on the good ship "Invercargill" on his voyage to New Zealand in 1878.

Left 11th July 1878.