Time for a ferry ride
For a short, blissful time my wife and I owned a little place in Church Bay with views over Lyttelton Harbour. Weather permitting, we would have our breakfast, lunch and dinner on the balcony, drinking in the ever-changing, magical light display over the hills and harbour – we really did think that we were living a beautiful dream.
The day we moved into our new house a neighbour knocked on the door and presented us with a freshly baked homemade cake, which was the start of a glorious time for us on the harbour.
I would travel to work on the Diamond Harbour ferry and then take the connecting bus through the tunnel into Christchurch. On my return journey, one summer evening, the ferry captain called out that there were dolphins starboard. He promptly slowed the engine and circled around so we could all get a closer view.
These spontaneous harbour loops made me ecstatic to be living in a country where observing Hector’s dolphins was so much more of a priority than arriving on time.
I puzzled for a long time as to why there is such a special feeling when you step off the ferry onto the Diamond Harbour jetty. The answer came to me only on the day I went to meet an Australian friend off the ferry. As we walked towards our parked car he asked how we’d got our car across to the island.
Yes, arriving by ferry really does feel like you have arrived on an enchanted island.
Now if you are a day tripper to Diamond Harbour I have to be quite honest and say the steep walk up from the jetty never gets any easier than when I first visited as a chubby young boy. When you get to the bend in the road there is, however, a shortcut up through the trees, but if you want to call in at the Diamond Harbour Memorial Cemetery, then follow the road around to the left. I do have to say that if I was looking for a future permanent home I could do much worse than this scenic place of rest.
The compensation for when you’ve puffed your way to the top is that you’re definitely allowed to set up camp at the cafe. On my most recent visit there we sat out the front enjoying the sun, pizzas and cavalcade of happy visitors. Although everyone had only travelled the short distance from Christchurch, they all felt as though they were on holiday and were keen to chat. A large percentage of these visitors ambled over to study the real estate agent displays, dreaming of how life could be different.
For those of you who want to know some of the recent history of this picturesque part of Banks Peninsula you need to know about Mark Pringle Stoddart. Scottish-born Stoddart arrived in Lyttelton from Australia in 1851 and was a gentleman farmer. Like you, I’m curious to know what makes you a gentleman farmer rather than just a standard farmer.
The answer evidently is that a gentleman farmer was a man whose wealth or income from other sources permitted him to farm for pleasure rather than for the basic income. After three seconds of careful consideration, I decided this is definitely the way to go.
Stoddart had been farming in Victoria but droughts and boredom had got the better of him, so he and his friend EM Templer chartered a ship for Lyttelton and brought with them, as you do, 2000 sheep. When they arrived in Lyttelton the first four ships were still moored there.
Stoddart astutely started buying rural leases around Canterbury. He bought a large property on the north bank of the Rakaia River, which is now known as Rakaia Downs. He sold this in 1853 and in time became the managing partner in the famous Glenmark Station. For a brief time Stoddart even owned Quail Island.
On arrival in New Zealand, he’d also bought 22.3 hectares across the harbour from Lyttelton and three years later he added to his harbour property by buying a further 182ha. He named this bay Diamond Harbour because of the way the sun glittered on the waters like diamonds.
Reading this reminds me of a story my mother told me. After a family day trip to Diamond Harbour, my brother Tony began having nightmares every night and there was nothing she could do to calm him.
Having been an art teacher and out of absolute desperation, my mother asked Tony to paint what was troubling him. He covered the paper with blue paint and brightly coloured shapes that clever mum deduced was the sparkling water under the gangplank from their recent excursion. As soon as Tony painted this picture, his nightmares stopped.
Despite all his astute property deals, Stoddart lived a simple life on his property at Diamond Harbour and actually chose to live in an underground hole. He did not build himself a house until he was about to wed.
On April 27, 1852, the day after John and Charlotte Godley visited Stoddart in Diamond Harbour, Charlotte wrote home to her mother in England: “The morning before was most uncomfortable; they were at the station of a Mr Stoddart … and although he has been here about a year, he still lives in a horrible den … into which you creep through a hole; there being neither a door or window.
“I believe it is rather the Australian plan to live in this discomfort, unless there is a lady concerned; but it seems rather extraordinary because Mr Stoddart appears to have money. He is, more-over, when he appears in the world, quite a gentleman, fond of drawing, poetry, reading and so on; so clever and pleasant, that he made them spend a very agreeable evening, in spite of the locality.”
On a stock-buying visit to Australia in 1861, Stoddart bought a flat pack cottage that he had assembled in time for his marriage to Anna Schjott, the daughter of a Norwegian minister. This cottage became known, unsurprisingly, as Stoddart Cottage and is the oldest building in Diamond Harbour and very much a local landmark.
Anna and Mark had six children and when Godley House became available they moved from the cottage and lived in the much grander house. They did return to Scotland for a few years, but the pull of Canterbury was too strong and they returned in 1880, buying a house in Christchurch. Mark died in 1885 and is buried at St Peter’s in Upper Riccarton.
Anna and Mark’s second daughter, Margaret Stoddart, who was born in Stoddart Cottage, was to become one of New Zealand’s most celebrated artists of her time. One of her most famous paintings is Old Homestead Diamond Harbour.
If you are feeling mildly energetic, can I suggest you stretch your legs and walk around to the neighbouring Purau Bay.
Even if you were to take this walk every day you would never cease to marvel at the staggering scenery. You will pass the little Purau Bay jetty, with the small boats stacked on their keels. Surely this is where Jørn Utzon, the Sydney Opera House architect, drew inspiration for his iconic design.
I wish I could tell you that on arrival at Purau you’ll be able to buy the finest soy latte cappuccino and frangipani friand in the South Island, but Purau has the same range of facilities it had when I first visited it as a young boy, and for this reason I love it. If you are still feeling energetic, then walk a short way up Purau Port Levy Rd as the scenery has so much to offer in all directions.
If you decide to visit this hidden gem, please don’t tell a soul as I don’t want too many people to know how very special it is.
It really is time for a ferry ride, but of course you could always drive to this enchanted Island via beautiful Governors Bay and avoid the puff up from the Diamond Harbour jetty.
The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will remain open for at least another 20 years, mining giant Rio Tinto has announced.
The smelter had been facing the risk of closure at the end of this year as a result of its power supply agreement coming to an end.
But Rio Tinto said it had reached new 20-year agreements with Meridian Energy, Contact Energy and Mercury that secured its future.
The announcement saw the sharemarket prices of the three power firms each jump by a few percent, adding more than $1 billion to their combined market value.
Two of the deals are still subject to approvals from the Electricity Authority, which in 2022 gave itself the right to veto any power supply contracts, and other unstated conditions that are not believed to be material.
The authority’s veto power was based on its concern that the smelter’s previous short-term bargain-basement power deal, which is believed to have allowed it to buy electricity at a price of just 3.5 cents per kilowatt hour, was pushing up prices for other electricity users.
Prior to 2021, the smelter is understood to have been paying about 6c/kWh for power.
The Electricity Authority said in a statement that it had cleared a draft contract between the smelter and Mercury, but made no mention of the status of its consideration of the other new contracts. A spokesperson told Stuff it “did not comment on the status of applications”.
It is allowed 45 days to review large power contracts, so its ability to veto any of the agreements would expire after that.
Rio Tinto Aluminium chief executive Jérôme Pécresse said it was pleased that the long-term future of the Tiwai Point smelter had been secured.
The agreements marked “an exciting new chapter” in the smelter’s history, he said.
The power company agreements allow Meridian and Contact Energy to reduce power supply to the smelter by about a third, or 185 megawatts, when power is in short supply, with the smelter rewarded for decreasing its demand.
Rio Tinto said this would “help ensure secure electricity supply to New Zealand homes and businesses when it is most needed”.
Rio Tinto has separately agreed to acquire the 21% share of the smelter it did not own from Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Company.
The bulk of the smelter’s power will continue to come from Meridian, which will supply 377MW.
Meridian chief financial officer Mike Roan said the deal it had reached would see the smelter pay a fixed price for its electricity until 2028.
After that, the power price would go up by the rate of inflation each year, but only if the price of aluminium had risen in the previous year compared to the year prior.
Roan declined to reveal what the fixed price was, but Meridian described it as “sustainable”.
Contact Energy said in a statement to the NZX that it would be supplying between 100MW and 120MW to the smelter at a price that would be “consistent with long-term electricity supply agreements supporting large South Island industrial users”.
The price was “materially higher than the price received on the current transitional agreement”, it said.
Forsyth Barr analyst Andrew Harvey-Green said he believed it would be safe to assume that the average price the smelter would be paying would be somewhere in the band of 6c to 10c per kilowatt hour.
John Harbord, chairperson of the Major Electricity Users Group, whose members include the smelter but also many other large commercial and industrial power users, said that – despite the Electricity Authority’s previous contract concerns – other power users benefited from the smelter staying open.
“One of the crucial things having the smelter does, is it provides ‘flex’ in our system by being able to reduce its power consumption,” he said.
“If we have limited electricity supply due to lack of rain or wind or sun, it is the first cab off the rank to shore up the whole system and ensure the lights stay on for the whole of New Zealand.”
If the smelter closed, generation would over time reduce to match existing demand, he said.
“It would not suddenly free up electricity that sat there forever. It would disappear, and then you have lost that flex.”
Harvey-Green agreed the “demand-response” aspect of the power deals would be “clearly positive” for keeping the lights on.
Environmentally, it was also a good outcome, given that the alternative to the smelter reducing demand during periods of tight supply might be turning on the Huntly power station’s coal-fired Rankine turbines, he said.
Energy Minister Simeon Brown also welcomed the agreement, which he said would provide “much-needed certainty for electricity generators”.
“Demand for electricity is going to remain high, and we expect that this news will lead to more electricity generation being brought online,” he said.