Island Bay

I grew up in Island Bay. Katie Chapman at the Dom Post profiles the suburb:

The sun beats down on Island Bay, the water lapping gently on the shore as fishing boats bob in the harbour.

The water is central to Island Bay life, says local fixture Carlo Muollo, 68.

He should know. His family has been fishing the local waters since 1902, and sitting in the kitchen of the house he’s lived in for the past 44 years, he rattles off tales of family fishing life.

Everyone knows the Muollos – or at least some of them. I went to school with a few of them.

The suburb’s name itself is one of the more straightforward around Wellington – simply reflecting Taputeranga Island that sits in the middle of the bay, while nearby Houghton Bay is named for Robert Houghton, the first signalman at the station above Newtown. …

A group of us once spent the night on Taputeranga Island. In hindsight not that fun 🙂

In 1908, Island Bay became home to one of New Zealand’s most revered women, when the Home of Compassion for the terminally ill was founded by Mother Mary Joseph Aubert. The hospital remained open until 2002.

I know the Home of Compassion well. My father worked there (not exclusively) for around 35 years, and since I was a infant we would go up there for Christmas Day. We still know several of the nuns, and have a coupel come around for Christmas every year.

The spire of St Francis de Sales Church was built to resemble the prow of a ship, in acknowledgement of the history of Island Bay as a safe harbour for fishermen and their families.

Heh I’ve climbed the spire and rung the bell. It is very loud when you are up inside it!

Erskine College was called The Convent of the Sacred Heart until the late 1960s when it was renamed in honour of former Superior General of the Society of the Sacred Heart, Mother Janet Erskine Stuart. The school closed in 1985 and today the building is privately owned.

I twice got chased off the property or Erskine late at night, when I was ahem visiting a friend 🙂