Tāpoa | Baker's Bay | Magazine Bay

Tāpoa Magazine Bay, is the smallest of the three bays between Rāpaki Bay and Lyttelton Port, the other two being Motu-kauati-iti Corsair Bay and Motu-kauati-rahi Cass Bay. Enclosed by natural volcanic features, it has long been known to Māori as Tāpoa, for the bay's swirling winds, and was on the well-worn pathway between the Ngāti Wheke settlement at Rāpaki and the resource-rich area around the former Ngāti Mamoe village of Ōhinehou, on which land the Canterbury Association's town of Lyttelton was founded in 1850.

After the New Zealand colonial government’s 1849 acquisition of much of Ngāi Tahu land around Whakaraupō (then known as Port Cooper), this quiet little bay was purchased as part of a parcel of 100 acres designated Rural Section 375, by one SH Andrews in 1854. Over the years, it underwent numerous subdivisions and transactions. Moreover, the bay was known by multiple European names over time, such as Crompton's and Browning's bays, but it was primarily known as Baker's Bay until eventually renamed Magazine Bay, after its old powder magazine, in the early 20th century.

In its earliest colonial years, Baker's Bay served a functional role for the landing of cattle, horses, and other goods, with the SS Star of the South unloading 59 head of cattle from Whanganui in 1863. The bay’s gently sloping beach and steep cliff walls apparently made it more useful than the port’s jetties for offloading and holding livestock. In 1874, early Lyttelton pioneer John Grubb built his shipyard there and operated the business through to at least the late 1890s. Also in 1874, a specialised stone structure for storing explosives, colloquially known as a powder magazine, was built to house the explosives used in the construction of the Lyttelton (Moorhouse) rail tunnel. So solidly was it built, it survived the devastating 2010-11 Canterbury Earthquakes and still stands on its seawall by the beach to this day.

From 1885 this magazine also served a dual function as a military storage facility when Tāpoa Baker's Bay was requisitioned as a defence reserve. Due to a perceived expansionist threat from Imperial Russia in the early 1880s, the land around the bay had been integrated into a broader British Imperial defence strategy for Whakaraupō Lyttelton Harbour. This culminated in the construction of the Fort Erskine 65-pounder gun emplacement overlooking Lyttelton Port’s inner harbour, complementing the emplacements at Battery Point and Fort Jervois on Rīpapa Island, all manned by the Lyttelton Naval Artillery Volunteers. Later updated with a 7-inch muzzle loading rifled cannon, the Erskine Point Battery was decommissioned by 1905.

In the 1930s the old Fort Erskine emplacement was stripped for salvage with the 7-inch cannon gifted to the Sumner Sea Cadets base at TS Cornwell. In 1935 the steamship John Anderson towed one of Lyttelton Port’s many coal hulks, the Lota, formerly a majestic 3-masted wooden barque, to its final resting place on the beach at what by then was known as Magazine Bay where it was to be broken up for salvage. However, the wreck remained on the beach until at least 1940 accompanied by growing complaints about its safety from local beachgoers and swimmers.

At the onset of World War II in 1939, the Magazine Bay defence reserve was again fortified with a 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun just above the former Fort Erskine gun mount. Known as the ‘Oil Wharf Gun’ it also overlooked the inner harbour and was Whakaraupō Lyttelton Harbour’s only defence until the Godley Head guns were brought into service later that year. Post-war, the bay reverted to being a public recreation area, managed by Lyttelton and then Christchurch councils. However, it was not until 1984 that ownership was transferred from the Ministry of Defence to the council, formally ending the 99 year history of Tāpoa Magazine Bay as a defence reserve.

From 1982 on, the Magazine Bay marina provided boat moorings for pleasure craft outside the crowded inner harbour. However, a series of destructive storms, most notably the severe storm of October 2000, hit the marina hard, sinking a number of yachts and damaging the infrastructure. That exposure to storms and their 'swirling winds', followed by the 2018 construction of Te Ana Marina, led to the abandonment of Magazine Bay marina, which is due to be dismantled this September 2023. From 1999 to 2002, the magazine building underwent significant restoration and was repurposed as the Lyttelton Torpedo Boat Museum. The museum displays the remains of the 1885 Thornycroft torpedo boat that was housed and launched from a slipway at Tāpoa Magazine Bay during the 1880s ‘Russian Scare’. Run by volunteers and open on Sunday afternoons during the summer months, the museum and its often quiet beach remain a popular haunt for locals.