Ripapa Island, Fort Jervois Evening Explore

Exploring Ripapa Island, Fort Jervois.
(Fort Jervois was built on Ripapa as one of the four defences set up in World War I to protect Lyttelton Harbour, and as part of the nationwide coastal defences. The walled fort that had been built in 1886 had been re-militarised as a result of a perceived Russian scare and is the most complete Russian scare fort left in New Zealand. The fort was occupied by the New Zealand army from the Russian scare till the end of World War I and was again garrisoned during World War II. Fort Jervois housed some prisoners of war during World War I including Felix von Luckner.
The fort is currently the home of two extremely rare guns. One is a BL 8-inch gun (one of only 12 left in the world), which is still in working order, though there are no shells left for such a weapon. It also holds a smaller BL 6-inch gun. However, at the first test shot the recoil system failed, with the result that the barrel cracked and most of the rest of the gun was damaged and was returned to England for repairs. A test fire in 1939 cracked the mounting. Though these are the only two guns currently in place at Fort Jervois, there are emplacements for another two guns. These two guns are on the island but have been partially destroyed.

The island has been under the control of the Department of Conservation since 1990. Fort Jervois is classed as a Category I historic place by Heritage New Zealand, and has been considered "actively managed" by Canterbury Conservancy. Future plans have been made to return the island to how it was during the Second World War.

The June 2011 Christchurch earthquake damaged Fort Jervois and it was closed for some time. Remedial repairs have now been carried out, and the island was reopened in November 2019. Currently, it is only possible to visit the island by private boat; public ferry services from Lyttelton wharf resumed in 2020.)