page_title: Days Bay
section_title: Eastbourne's access
hierarchical_section_title: Days Bay / Destination resort / Eastbourne's access
caption_attribution_description: English: Day's Bay House circa 1903
context_page_description: Days Bay is a residential area in Lower Hutt in the Wellington Region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is walled on three sides by steep bush-clad slopes. Most of its level land is occupied by Williams Park and an independent boys' primary school, originally a part of Williams Park.
  Wellington shipowner, J H Williams, bought land in Days Bay near the end of the 19th century to create custom for his smaller vessels, building a wharf and turning the bay into a sports and resort development for day-trippers and holiday-makers. Williams sold his interest in 1905 and the new owners split off building sites on unneeded land. The Eastbourne Borough Council bought the ferries in 1913 and the accommodation, Days Bay House, was sold to Wellington's Croydon School. The following year the Wellington City Council with central government support and public subscription bought the resort for the benefit of the public though without its accommodation and, in view of the large cash contribution by the founder's mother, named it Williams Park.
context_section_description: Eastbourne Borough Council committed themselves to their purchase on 26 June and took over Duchess and Cobar on 1 September 1913. The timetable was increased and the service made more convenient for East Harbour residents. In 1923 the council purchased Muritai but it proved an expensive vessel to run. The paving of the Hutt Road and the extension of the bitumen to Muritai lowered ferry custom and the council was obliged to buy a fleet of buses. Duchess was sold in 1934. Muritai was taken over for Defence purposes in August 1940. Cobar was badly damaged by fire in 1948 and sold for a trawler in 1950. Cobar replacement  Ocean Cruiser, a stripped Fairmile with a puny stand-in for its three V12 petrol engines, proved unreliable and did not attract the hoped-for custom.
caption: Day's Bay House soon after it was built
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