Pencarrow Light Houses - March 10th, 2012

One of the sites we've wanted to see was the Pencarrow Lighthouses at the entrance to Wellington Harbor.  Only problem is that it's an 8 mile trek out and back.  There is a road, but it's closed to common traffic so you either bike or walk out.  We decided the latter and took off on what ended up being about 5 hours of walking.  The upper lighthouse has been in position since 1859.  The first was the upper and the second was the lower.  To learn more about the lighthouse visit this link

http://www.historicplaces.org.nz/placestovisit/lowernorthisland/pencarrowlighthouse.aspx

Here both lighthouses are seen from Seatoun which is across the mouth of the entrance to the bay.

Here we are with the Overton's ready to take off to the lighthouses.  They cannot be seen here because they are down around the point you see in the background.

The south island as seen during the walk out to the lighthouses!  That's about 20 miles away!

The "Pilot" boat guides the larger ships in and out of the harbor.  Here's it's waiting for a cargo ship

Here's the "Bluebridge" ferry to Picton

Here are a number of photo's from the lighthouses





Here we are climbing the trail to the top of original lighthouse





You can see the original lighthouse in the back with the trail down below.

We made it!  You can see the old lighthouse over my left shoulder and the bay and city behind us.

There was time for lunch at the top!



They had neat informational signs along the trail leading up to the old lighthouse

 

We saw lots of birds, sheep and even black swans on this trek

The lighthouse at top was manned by a family for years during the late 1800's.  Here's the grave site of one of the daughters of the family that died while living there.  The father drowned in an accident and the wife took over becoming the first female lighthouse operator in New Zealand.