Most Southern in the World #6 - Post Office Ulva Island Stewart Island

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Post Office, Ulva, Stewart Island, the most Southern Post Office in the World, circa 1910

Charles Traill, an Orkney Islander, established a post office on Ulva Island in 1873. Ulva is an island in Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island, New Zealand's third largest island that lies across Foveuax Strait at the bottom of the South Island.

A view from a hill overlooking the Ulva Island post office, circa 1910s. The sender writes "terribly rough trip across [Strait] nearly every one was sick. Thank goodness I wasn't."

One can understand the discomfort of the sea voyage given the size of the tourist schooners plying Foveau Strait at the time. The sea voyage today can still be a rough one -

Schooner drawing in to Half Moon Bay, Stewart Island, circa 1910s

The post office was the first on Stewart Island and was no doubt an amenity that sealers, whalers, fishermen and early settlers appreciated. It also was a popular place for tourists to visit to be able to grab a postcard, mail it, and boast to those back home that they had been to the most southern post office in the world.

The Ulva post office closed in 1923 with a post office continuing operations in Half Moon Bay. Neither could still claim to be the southern most post office today since postal services operate now at places like Scott Base (NZ) and McMurdo station (US) in Antarctica.

The old post office building still remains on Ulva, but the island is now an open wildlife sanctuary. The sanctuary is free of introduced pests such as rats, enabling the re-establishment of native bird species including the Tieke/saddleback, mohua /yellowhead, toutouwai/Stewart Island robin and tītipounamu/rifleman since 2000. More details here.

Mail boat off Ulva Island, Stewart Island, circa 1907.

Most Southern in the World #4 - Signal Station, Bluff NZ

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The Signal Station, Bluff, New Zealand

Though the postcard caption does not say so, the signal station at Bluff probably qualified as the southern most signal station at the time this card was published around 1910.

Signal stations monitored flag signals from vessels at sea and relayed them to shore-based locations. For example, an approaching ship's imminent arrival at Bluff might be signaled from the ship including information about whether a doctor was required upon docking, the ship was carrying mail, the ship required assistance, and so on. Signals might also be sent in either direction about weather conditions such as approaching storms. Flag signals were soon to be superceded by wireless radio when this picture was taken.

The Awarua wireless radio station at Invercargill did not open until 1913. Its task was to monitor marine radio for distress signals and other communication in the southern oceans. On the night of 23 March 1916 it was Alfred Goodwin at Awarua who picked up a distress signal from Ernest Shackleton's Ross Sea party that their ship the Aurora had been disabled by sea ice and they needed assistance.

Most Southern in the World #3 - Pilot Station, Bluff

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The Most Southern in the World Pilot Station, Stirling Point, Bluff NZ

Continuing with our "most southern in the world" series from the early 20th century, here is the pilot's station at Bluff, on the southern shores of the South Island of New Zealand. No doubt the station was a cosy spot for the harbour pilot waiting to go out to board a vessel needing to be piloted into Bluff Harbour.

A view along the shoreline to the pilot's station on the point as a vessel hoves into view.

Pilot station, now disused, in 2007

Standing as testament to those who built her, the now abandoned pilot station still stands on Stirling Point. Those wire guy ropes were there for a reason - the prevailing westerly winds often reach gale force in Foveaux strait, a treacherous, stormy stretch of water between the South Island and Stewart Island. Nevertheless, given its low situation, it's amazing that the station has not been washed away by high seas over the past one hundred years or more.

Most Southern in the World #2 - Streetcar & Moving Wagon?

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The Most Southern Electric Car in the World, Invercargill, NZ, William Nees, circa 1910.

The view across the street from the Hansom cab & gas lamp from the previous "Most Southern" #1 post reveals an impressive electric tram or streetcar of the Invercargill Tramways company. Note that the young girl standing by the gas lamp now has a post box she can post letters in. But is it the most southern post box?

And just a few years earlier, before the electric tramway was laid down and the overhead poles & wires installed, a team of horses and a wagon pause to admire the gas lamp. Is that bicycle or that church the "most southern" of its kind?

Most Southern in the World #1 ... Hansom Cab & Gas Lamp

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Most Southern Gas Lamp & Hansom Cab in the World, Invercargill, New Zealand, Muir & Moodie, postmarked 1907.

At the turn of the 20th century, during the Golden Age of postcard sending & collecting, pakeha New Zealanders delighted in sending postcards back to the British Isles where most of them had come from or across to Australia to show the recipients that they had indeed started to carve out a new Britain in this far flung bastion of the British Empire.

What could be more convincing evidence than images of symbols of British technology and civilization at the furtherest reaches of the red coloured parts of the world map?

Thus, with a range of postcard views captioned "The Most Southern...", citizens of the new country plied their families and friends "back home" with the proof of their civilizing ways.

To be "most southern" in New Zealand meant to be in Invercargill, the southern most city at the southern tip of the South Island - or to go a further 30 km south to Bluff, the port serving Invercargill.

This postcard shows that one could catch a Hansom cab and read one's newspaper under the glow of a gas street lamp.

Don't be fooled by the scene, my friends, into thinking that this cab and lamp were in the middle of nowhere for across the foot trail to the right of the image there are further "most southern" delights awaiting you. Watch out for the next "thrilling" installment...