Sunday at Somes Island

So, last Sunday, I spent a good part of the day on Somes / Matiu Island, a Scientific and Historic Reserve just a few kilometres off Wellington.

The island, which obviously is accessible only by boat (East by West Ferries), has a total area of 24.9 hectares (62 acres) and, because it is the breeding ground and home to a lot of exotic animals such as skinks, tuataras, blue penguins (among others), Matiu / Somes is under the full control of the Department of Conservation (otherwise known as DOC). Yesterday, however, the tranquil little island became a quarantined area and the DOC even issued a warning on their website! Screen shot below:

Can you see the Alert / Important Notice?

In case it’s too little, here’s a bigger image of the warning:

So yeah – the Island, for one day, became the venue for Wellington’s 2nd Zombie Run. I have been yammering about it for the longest time and yesterday was the big day. It was actually a lot of fun. As i said, I didn’t run but was stationed at the finish line, ready to take note of the finish times of the “racers”.

Photos from the day can be viewed through the gallery, below. Just hover over an image for more info.

The Zombie Horde! (without Make up). There were quite a lot, perhaps 50 zombie volunteers.

Vans outside Chicago (meeting place of the Runners) – the crowd at the top are the zombies, heading off to the Island so they can be made up.

Jeep from the Umbrella Corporation

Military Personnel @ The Dock

Barking out last minute instructions

Infection Scanner on the Island

There were three waves of runners, the first two had 90 participants each, and the last wave had about 70. They all had to run up and around the Island in search for 2 vials of antidotes and, at the same time, evade the zombies that were out to get their “lives” (three red strips of ribbon hanging from a belt around their waists). I had to run around the island with one of the organisers so we could drop off “body parts” along the race track . It was tiring but I was able to go around the track and see the fully made up zoms.

It was quite an interesting experience. Watching the runners disembark from the ferry was fun. Some of the runners were in really funny costumes! I saw one dressed up as Jack Sparrow (complete with dreadlocks), a few dressed up as Smurfs, a fairy, doctors, nurses, Spiderman and Batman (just to name a few).

Since I had a job to do, I was unable to take pictures of the runners or of the zombies while they were in action. I did, however, manage to take a few snaps of the zombies some time after the last runner crossed the finish line.