Lyttelton · The Port’s Clock and Its Hills

Lyttelton is the port of Canterbury, with hills wrapping the town into a bowl; the railway station, the wharves and the villages on the hills are joined by a single tunnel.

The “time ball station” at the entrance to the town once set the port’s time by a falling ball and a signal clock, and steam, rail and shipping all depended on it. The 2011 earthquake broke a great deal of this old town and of the buildings on the hills, and the rebuilding is still going on.

The talk around the port is the usual kind: footsteps in the old warehouses, whispers in the tunnel. What people in town care about more is the line they keep repeating: the ground is still moving.

Historical Mysteries / Canterbury · New Zealand / 1876