Eastbourne

We took a long hike out to Pencarrow Lighthouse today. This was the first permanent iron-built lighthouse in New Zealand. The original structure was a small 2 bedroom shack where a Mr. and Mrs. Bennett kept an oil lamp lighting in the window all night. Unfortunately Mr. Bennett died and left poor Mrs. Bennett to keep the home fire burning - literally. She was the first and only female lighthouse-keeper in New Zealand and was uncermoniously kicked out of the place as soon as the newer more luxurious lighthouse was built.

Eastbourne park is fascinating, it has 2 quite large inland lakes that were created when the tital marshes were damed up by a combination of sea build up and some earthquake damage. These freshwater lakes are only a few hundred feet from the open ocean. The second photo shows the lip of the lake separating it from the ocean. The hillsides look amazingly like California. Except that the lovely yellow stuff you can see is furze bushes (gorse) - the scurge of the New Zealand countryside.

It turns out that the gorse actually has a benefit, it keeps sheep from eating the seedlings of the native bush. If left untouched the native bush seedlings will grow up among the gorse eventually starving it of light and killing it off. Here is a photo of some Manuka (tea trees) growing up through the gorse on the Eastbourne peninsula.

The last picture was taken tonight on our evening walk with Molly.