Sunset to Sunrise

(Paperback)

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This fascinating history of New Zealand's lighthouses will captivate the reader and give insight into a bygone age when men and women strove against the elements to maintain the safety of the mariners. The story of New Zealand's navigational aids goes right back to the early days, when shipping was the international and coastwise form of commercial transport for the new colony. Between 1990 and 2000, it was the task of Captain Timothy Nicol, then safety services manager for the Maritime Safety Authority (later Maritime New Zealand), together with lighthouse engineer Ken Belt, to maintain and renew these aids, travelling widely by land, sea and air to do so. In Sunset to Sunrise, the reader is taken on a typical present-day annual tour of inspection of lighthouses, beacons, buoys and various aids to seagoing navigation scattered around the entire coast of New Zealand. Together with historical details, this book commemorates the indefatigable, long suffering and conscientious lighthouse keepers and their families,weaving tales of hardship and endurance scarcely believed in today's world. the facts and anecdotes in this comprehensive account keep the reader engrossed from start to finish. Timothy Nicol loved the sea ever since he saw the ships at Mombassa, Kenya in his youth. He rose to captain in the British Merchant Navy, sailing worldwide, and in 1970 arrived in New Zealand to lecture, set up safety standards, rebuild the marine radio system, and manage the country's lighthouses. His seagoing career, his camera and his passion for the safety of mariners led to the eventual writing of Sunset to Sunrise in his retirement years.