The Bean Rock Lighthouse

The Bean Rock Lighthouse…

The Bean Rock lighthouse is one of the well known lighthouses in New Zealand which was lit on the 24th of July in 1871 and constructed in 1870 this unique looking lighthouse took 8 months to build and was at the cost of $2,762, the light was powered by ‘kerosene’ there were eight lighthouse keepers around 1971 to 1912, which are Hugh Brown (1871 - 1890)(First lighthouse keeper), James William Nicolson (1890), John Wheeler (1890 - 1896), Edward R. Wilson (1896 - 1900), Alexander McKinlay (1900 - 1906), William Colley (1906 - 1909), James Anderson (1909 - 1911) and finally Frederick Woodbury (1911 - 1912).  

This Lighthouse is named (or called) after the master of HMS Herald. His name is Lieutenant P.C.D Bean, this person helped to carry out the first survey of Waitemata Harbour in 1840. There is also a Maori legend.

This lighthouse wasn’t the most popular place to work, the first keeper Mr. Brown (Hugh Brown) must have liked this lighthouse and was willing to work there,  the reason why he liked this lighthouse was because he had stayed there for more than 10 years (19 years)!. He liked that he cleaned it by scrubbing all the rust and sweeped the ground. Around the time he didn’t work there he was earnt $150 each year!

You can find this lighthouse at Mission Bay in Auckland to maori people it is known as the Te-Toka-o-Kapetaua’s (Kapetaua’s rock) for the memory of Kapetaua.