On 30 November 1871 Hans (the eldest son aged 32) and his wife Karen (31) and their now four children; Elisabet (8), Lauritz (5), Hans (4) and Carl (1) left the port of Kristiania for Hull, England aboard the steamship S/S Oder. After a short but uncomfortable wait in Hull, they boarded the 853 ton sailing ship “England”, commanded by Captain George Henry Harrington which set sail for Wellington, New Zealand on 8 December 1781. A very severe outbreak of measles and diarrhoea caused 16 deaths during the 90 day voyage and sadly we now know, baby Carl then aged 9 mths, passed away onboard 31 January 1872 (died and was buried at sea southeast of Tristan da Cunhaand & Gough Island.) Lauritz aged 5 years later too passed away on 7 March 1872 - he died and was buried at sea in Cook Strait while the ship was becalmed. They were so close to their destination. What a tremendously sad time it would have been.
The ship finally arrived in the Port of Wellington on 9 March 1872, but not before the crew and passengers were all detained in specially built barracks, for quarantine purposes, on a small island in Wellington Harbour called “Somes Island”, after a suspected outbreak of smallpox occurred. It is not known how long the quarantine lasted but two cases of smallpox were confirmed during that time. (The quarantine expired on 30 March 1872.) The family disembarked at Wellington and made the weary trip to their new home on foot. They already knew of the Scandinavian settlements where many of their Norwegian friends had already colonised, through the ‘Vogel's Assisted Immigration Scheme’ started in New Zealand in 1870.