Ōtamahua / Quail Island ( or ) is an uninhabited island within Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō in the South Island of New Zealand, close to Christchurch. The island was given its European name by Captain William Mein Smith who saw native quail here in 1842; though they were already extinct by 1875. means 'the place where children collect sea eggs'. refers to the pepper trees found on the island. History Pre-European history Apparently uninhabited by the New Zealand native peoples, Ōtamahua was still often visited to collect shellfish, flax, bird's eggs as well as stone for tools (from Aua / King Billy Island, an outcrop just off Ōtamahua). Its significance to Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke as a site for food gathering was acknowledged with the installation in 2019 of a 9 metre tall pou whenua. This pillar was carved by Caine Tauwhare and named Te Hamo o Tū Te Rakiwhānoa: a hamo was a tool for planting kūmara. Quarantine and leper colony Europeans briefly farmed the island in 1851, before it was turned into a quarantine station in 1875, a hospital during the influenza epidemic of 1907, and a small leper colony from 1906 to 1925. During its time as a leper colony, fourteen men were sent there, and two died there. Ivon Skelton arrived in 1919. Born in Apia, Samoa, he was visiting family on the West Coast in 1918 when he was diagnosed with leprosy. He and his cousin were put into isolation in Cobden, but while his cousin was released, Skelton was sent to Quail Island. He died there on 22 October 1923 at age 24, and was buried on the island. A small fence was put up around the grave in 1931. An attempt was made in 2015 to exhume the body, to save it from threatening erosion and to study the DNA of the disease as little was known about Pacific strains. However, two days of excavations found only a ceramic pot and glass bowl, perhaps used to hold flowers, and a large hole that had been filled with rocks, perhaps to protect the site from erosion. Sam Te Iringa was brought to the island in late 1920 from Kirikau Pā, where only his niece had been willing to care for him. He found a run-down colony without a nurse. Due to the poor conditions he tried to organise a strike, but as the