The Last of the Keepers of the Light

When my grandfather, Ron ALLEN, retired from Army life, he became one of the last lighthouse keepers in New Zealand. Between 1974 and 1982, he and his family (wife Valerie and their two younger sons) lived in some of the most wild and beautiful places in New Zealand:

  • Burgess Island, which is the middle of three islands in the Mokohīnau group, North-East of Auckland
  • Cape Brett, a peninsula in the Bay of Islands
  • Portland Island, off the southern tip of the Māhia peninsula in Hawke’s Bay
  • Cape Reinga, at the very top of the North Island
Photo of a white lighthouse set against a very blue sky with bush & grass-covered hillside in the background. In the foreground is a sign post with yellow branches pointing in the direction of, and listing distances to, the Equator, Sydney, Bluff, Suva, the Tropic of Capricorn, and Panama.
The Lighthouse at Cape Reinga
Distanced photo of the lighthouse, homestead, and tourist car park at Cape Reinga, set atop a bushy hillside and overlooking the azure Pacific Ocean
The Lighthouse and settlement at Cape Reinga
Photo of Ronald Allen, a lean, bearded white man, leaning against the driver's door of a rust-spotted pale blue Jeep.
Ronald Allen
Photo taken by Ron Allen of his wife Valerie through the glass panes of the Cape Reinga lighthouse. She is a dark-haired, tanned-skinned, middle-aged woman smiling broadly, wearing a red polo neck jumper and coat. The lighthouse bulb is visible, blurred, in the foreground.
Valerie Allen through the glass panes of Cape Reinga’s lighthouse

Ron and Val loved the tough, untamed lifestyle so much that after the lighthouses became automated, they moved to Great Barrier Island for several years before finally retiring back to the North Island.

Author: MJ

Candles, cats, cheese, chocolate, coffee, crystals. Why do the best things in life start with C?

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