One of the advantages of cruising, if you are lighthouse fanatics like the Oldies, is that you can see lighthouses from the angle that they were designed to be seen from. Sometimes the cruise ship gets you fairly close as well. Here are three lighthouses that we saw on our New Zealand cruise on "Voyager of the Seas" back in 2012. The top one is the Iron Pot lighthouse at the mouth of the Derwent River in Tasmania (Hobart was the first port of call before we headed across the Tasman to NZ). It is the oldest tower in Australia, commencing operation in 1833. Macquarie lighthouse in Sydney started operation in 1818, but the original tower of that light was replaced in 1883. The lighthouse keeper's house on Iron Pot was a splendid mansion that took up most of the rest of the small island (Google for the story) but it was removed in the early 1920s. The light was automated in 1977. The bottom two are at Pencarrow Head in New Zealand. They mark the entrance to Wellington Harbour. The one on the top of the hill is the oldest lighthouse in NZ, starting operation in 1859. The first keeper was Mary Bennett, the only female keeper in NZ. The light was often hard to see because of fog and low cloud, so the lower one was built in 1906. The top one stopped operation in 1935, the lower one is still operating. Voyager passed Pencarrow Head just as the Oldies were starting breakfast. They scuttled madly for cameras and spots at the dining room windows. None of the other passengers understood what the excitement was all about. Love these Oldies of mine.
Labels: lighthouse, New Zealand, Tasmania
# posted by Bart Bear @ 12:06 pm
