My Visit to Ripapa Is, home for Felix Von Luckner

[DaveNZ]

The other week a mate and i jumped in the car and went to Ripapa Island, which is in Lyttelton harbour, Canterbury, New Zealand.

actually thats a lie; you cant drive to an island we drove to close to the island, walked down through some sheep paddocks and crossed over to the island at llow tide. unless you have a boat it is the only way to access the place.

Ripapa is mainly famous for Fort Jervois, a disappearing gun installation and bunker/fortress set up, which occupies the whole of the island.

this was built in 1886. heres a wee link for more info


http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/...ripapa-island/

The most famous person to 'stay' at Ripapa was the infamous Felix Graf von Luckner, captain of the WW1 German raider The Seeadler (sea eagle).

He was prisoner there at a time towards the end of WW1 after the seeadler was sunk. Von Lucker was quite a character and worth reading up on him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_von_Luckner

The dissappearing guns are still present on the island and two are still in very good condition.

here are a few pix;

first up here are the barracks buldings as seen from thewall of fort jervois looking back on the island. Behind the buildings the is a fortified stone wall and beyond that is a narrow stretch of sea which we waded across at low tide.

the hills behind are very dramatic; they are on Banks Peninsula.

[DaveNZ]

Here is one of the dissapearing guns lying on thr edge of one of the bunkers.

there was an attempt to take these guns off the island at some point after WW2 but they were so heavy that they didnt get very far with that as can be seen.

thats me btw

ps: the hills behind me are Godley Heads and there is a gun installation there too; this time for WW2.

In WW2 a german raider laid mines off Godley Heads but nothing was ever sunk by them.

[DaveNZ]

heres some poxy arty photo my mate took; this time from inside one of the gun bunkers. the gun in the previous picture can be seen up above me in this picture.

My mate thinks he is some sort of photographer

[DaveNZ]

Here is one of the dissapearing guns as seen from inside the bunker.

the gun is in very good knick and can still be traversed around 360 degrees by spinning the wheels you can see in the pic.

[DaveNZ]

Here is the main entrance to Fort Jervois. I was standing on the rampart above this when we took the pic of the barracks at the start of this thread.

the barracks are on one half the island, the fortress and bunkers take up the other half. and the whole island is surrounded by a very high stone wall; it is very much a fortress.

yep, another arty pic folks

[DaveNZ]

Last but not least here is moi looking out from the observation bunker on top of the fortress complex.

im scanning the horizon for the next wave of high quality TR fakes from china

[seebee1]

Fascinating DaveNZ, thank you for sharing your adventure Regards, Clive.

[Ralph P]

Hello DaveNZ - Thanks for posting your trip to Ripapa Island and thanks for the links. Do you have any additional pictures you can post? The buildings that you show in the picture, where they the only ones within the fort still standing?

Also I would be interested if you are near the other sites in the future any pictures of those sites that were also used to defend the island.

Thanks again...

[DaveNZ]

Hello DaveNZ - Thanks for posting your trip to Ripapa Island and thanks for the links. Do you have any additional pictures you can post? The buildings that you show in the picture, where they the only ones within the fort still standing?

Also I would be interested if you are near the other sites in the future any pictures of those sites that were also used to defend the island.

Thanks again...

thanks guys

The buildings shown are the only ones within the fort apart from the underground bunker network that holds the disappearing guns.

I will try and get some more photos from my mate; it was his camera we took and he did take plenty of photos. could be a delay in getting them though; he had a motorbike accident and is in hospital right now

Next time I go to Godley Heads I will take some photos of the bunker network there and the gun emplacements.

cheers

dave

[Ralph P]

Hey Dave - Thanks for your follow up post and it will be great to see what you add to this thread and any new thread updates of your travels...

[kenny]

Hi guys,i spent time here as a sea cadet about 1967.and from your photos it has,nt changed a bit,
As you enter Fort Jervis on the right is a long room with metal rails about 3/4 way up the wall(both sides of the room).this is where we slung our hammocks
and a very good sleep it was too,and just off the end of that room was a smaller room witch was our mess.
Felix Von Luckner escaped from there hidden in a gash bin(rubbish bin)from the jetty,the bins put there for collection by boat to be dumped.
Anyway that was the story we were told by our officers.
Thanks guys for your effort and the photos and memories.http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/images/smilies/.gif

[DaveNZ]

Hi guys,i spent time here as a sea cadet about 1967.and from your photos it has,nt changed a bit,
As you enter Fort Jervis on the right is a long room with metal rails about 3/4 way up the wall(both sides of the room).this is where we slung our hammocks
and a very good sleep it was too,and just off the end of that room was a smaller room witch was our mess.
Felix Von Luckner escaped from there hidden in a gash bin(rubbish bin)from the jetty,the bins put there for collection by boat to be dumped.
Anyway that was the story we were told by our officers.
Thanks guys for your effort and the photos and memories.http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/images/smilies/.gif

No it probably hasnt changed much.

What I really want to know is what building was used to hold Von Luckner? Couldnt tell. Perhaps he wasnt kept in a cell as such but had a room in one of the buildings?

Not sure about the rubbish bin incident but thats the first I have heard of it.

another one of the myths that I have heard is that Von Luckner was allowed out to go to the Opera in nearby Chritschurch but i find that hard to believe.

anyone know anything?