replica

My 7 bias reasons why a replica lighthouse is a good idea on Marine Parade
1: It would restore our image and identity as a Port City again
2: It would preserve our 150 year old Lighthouse history/Heritage
3: It would create a new Tourist attraction for Napier
4: It would help the survival of the old Napier Prison (A Heritage I category building located on Marine Parade) because tourists would go there because it is now New Zealand's oldest prison
5: A lighthouse is a important community building that people would embrace and attach too, therefore improving the social wellbeing for Napier People and the community
6: Napier would have another important iconic Landmark which would then help sell/marketing and advertising Napier overseas and domestically
7: Infrastructure is already established because the road and parking lot on Marine Parade can be used for parking if the walk up that hillside from Marine Parade to the lighthouse replica is developed again.

Can a Lighthouse be profiterable?

Recent reply from Dan Spinella (Artworks Florida Classic Fresnel Lenses, LLC Florida USA.
https://www.artworks-florida.com/design
A number of lighthouses here in the U.S. are profitable and some are huge tourist attractions. These are historic lighthouses though. They usually charge a small fee to climb the tower. I think people are more interested in seeing the view from the top. For some of the larger lighthouses, most of the income is from the gift shop, and have raised enough for their operating expenses and profit for purchasing artifacts and renovations. I believe your lighthouse could be profitable if there was something to see, historic artifacts or history to be learned. An original lens would certainly be an attraction, or even a reproduction as an interpretive exhibit. I see you have been actively searching for your lens. I had an email forwarded to me from the U.S. Lighthouse Society with information about your search. I hope you find someone who has more information or able to locate it!"

Option I photoshop picture with lighthouse on the lookout

Option 2 - The Bluff Hill Bowling Club on the end of Lighthouse Road, the original site set aside for a new lighthouse in the 1920's

Napier Bluff Coastal Fortifications building. The picture shows Tom Sharplin in 1974 on the Bluff Hill Lookout.

Option II for a replica lighthouse in Napier

The only problem with this option is that visitors to the lookout will see the lighthouse and want to visit at the Bowling Club. In summer time or weekends that would then interfere with games, traffic, create congestion etc. it would also create a lot more work for the Club and new security issues at night time. I think this brilliant idea still remains a good future option for any entity that will look after this historic reserve which was set aside for a new Napier lighthouse in 1927. A lighthouse here makes as much sense as on the Bluff Hill Lookout in my view. We have two options here but I prefer the Lookout option now because the infrastructure is already in place up there to handle the extra traffic that would be created with a lighthouse on the Napier Lookout as well as give access and enjoyment of this new lighthouse to all locals/visitors to Napier, not just to Bowling Club members. Below the view from the top of Lighthouse Road corner Elizabeth Street

Option 3, once the Ahuriri Treaty settlement has gone through in a couple of years, the Iwi could consider this.
This whole hillside is a huge tourist attraction in waiting, especially if a lighthouse is put back on the left hand corner opposite to the original lighthouse site.

The Napier Prison with the Lighthouse is the only prison in the world that had a lighthouse in their backyard. There is simply not other prison (apart from Alcatraz in San Fransisco) in the world that has this sort of history where a Government wanted to save money for a lighthouse keeper and therefore put the lighthouse right next to a prison. This sort of history is unique in the world and must be preserved. Alcatraz lighthouse had their own lighthouse keeper. In Napier the prison warden had to attend the light, that is the big difference therefore the Napier lighthouse is unique in the world. The only lighthouse ever built trying to save the wages for a lighthouse keeper.

Obviously all the trees on that hillside have to be removed for this option so one can actually see the prison and the lighthouse from Marine Parade. If one opens up the 150 year old walk from Marine Parade to the old Napier Prison again you have a wonderful new tourist attraction.

The prison would benefit from a lighthouse right there and historically it is accurate. Visitors would see the lighthouse first and then the prison if vegetation is kept low. Plenty of parking on Marine Parade, all the infrastructure is already there. Just put a lighthouse there, remove the trees, develop the walk. It will change the prison to a huge tourist attraction!

Here is what it would look like with the walk coming up from Marine Parade.& trees removed replanted in native bush!

Is there a possibility of a Bluff Hill Lighthouse replica or not? A good example of such a project is the Manukau Heads Lighthouse replica, it can be done for $150,000

https://www.manukauheadslighthouse.org.nz/
"The Manukau Heads Lighthouse Trust was formed in 2000 to organise the reconstruction of the original John Blackett designed lighthouse built in 1874. Progress was slow until local identity Bruce Russell was appointed project manager in 2005. Bruce rallied the local community to get behind his dream to build the replica of the lighthouse and much help was forthcoming. The first sod of the new site was turned on 23 March 2006. The rebuilt lighthouse was dedicated by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark on 23 September 2006. The present-day lighthouse is a replica of the original John Blackett designed lighthouse built in 1874. It is built on land behind the signal station on South Head and is open daily from 9am to 5pm. It is the only lighthouse in New Zealand where you will get a close-up opportunity to view the prisms of the 3rd order dioptic drum lens that was fitted to the original lighthouse in 1928."

The 3 replica locations/options I have identified are below:

A replica lighthouse in Napier is still possible if the original Fresnel Lens is located or not. In either case a replica lighthouse for Napier could be put on the Bluff Hill Lookout for obvious reasons. Possibly even at the original planned site on the end of Lighthouse Road (Now Bluff Hill Bowling Club) or most obvious place would be close to the original site next to the prison again. I am proposing three options for a lighthouse replica in Napier.

Replicas have been done before in NZ, however all replica lighthouses in New Zealand have been built on private land so far for various reasons. Putting one up on the lookout or the Club therefore won't be easy to negotiate because it is Council land and the Club is DOC land.

I had some communications with DOC and the Council as well as the Bowling Club about a lighthouse but there had been no real or serious interest in the proposal from the Napier City Council or the Bowling Club so far. Contact me if anybody from the Council or the Bowling Club or the Ahuriri Iwi likes to see a replica lighthouse in Napier. A replica proposal was also made to the Ahuriri Iwi to built a lighthouse replica just 50m from the original site.

I have a quote for a replica tower from Bruce Russell ($60,000) and I also have a quote for a replica lens from Dan Spinella, for $75,000. Including all other costs, Napier could have a Lighthouse again on the Bluff because we got the dome donated to us which drastically reduces the overall cost for this project to a more realistic total of only $150,000.

Pictured below are the Napier Coastal Fortifications on the lookout in 1950.

1980's Napier Fortifications, 30 years later. Neglegted and not valued at all.

Below one can see the back of one of the Gun Emplacement on Bluff Hill. Youth hanging out in one of these gun emplacement around 1975. One of the main reasons the Council destroyed these gun emplacement was the fact that people used to sleep and party there so the Council thought it was a good idea to demolish these. Nothing much has changed even today because the Napier City Council has a history of demolishing historic buildings because the Council is run by dinosaurs. How in earth could this happen back then I wonder?

Bird eye view of the Napier Fortifications

The Napier Fortifications were demolished during the 1980’s and are in ruins covered up under rubble now so these structures will never able to be uncovered again. Both cannons went to Japan to be scraped so there is nothing left at all.

These 1940’s bunker designs would have been timeless and a tourist attraction in Hawke's Bay. Below are the Takapuna Coastal Fortifications Gunn Emplacements just to demonstrate how a structure like this can still look quite nice if had survived in Napier.

The Gisborne Fortifications are identical to the Napier emplacements, also built by Faulknor Construction in the same time period in the 1940's. The Napier Fortifications would have looked exactly like in the picture below and we had two of these cannon emplacements on the lookout.

I established that the very lower part of the outer walls remained under the memorial, and the overall placement is exactly where they sat since their construction but they copied the general shape of the roof for the memorial so the outline is the same. However, basically there is just rubble under the memorial now. I am afraid but these structures on the lookout are definitely lost forever which is a real shame. If I would have arrived 10 earlier in Napier I would have tried to stop the destruction of these impressive 1940 architecture emplacements.

This idea was proposed to me by Jessie Jones who is the Greenkeeper at the Bluff Hill Bowling Club. I thought that this solution was just a fantastic idea, especially because this property was set aside in 1920's for the Napier Lighthouse.

Jessie suggested to simply turn the toolshed next to the bowling green into a lighthouse. We wouldn't even need a lens reproduction then. We could use just spotlights in the lighthouse for late evening games.

I would love to say that this was my idea but it wasn't. Jessie is clearly attached to the property because he works there most days doing long hours. He thought of a very practical solution to create an atmosphere for the Club at the same time. That would then also attract more buisness/members to the Bowling Club because of the atmosphere this lighthouse can create.

Picture below: Jessie Jones mowing in front of his new fancy toolshed! Just imagine standing on the deck of that lighthouse with a drink after a game of lawn bowls.

This dome was donated to the City of Napier by Maritime UK and Peel Ports in Glasgow. It had been sitting in a Greenock container yard for years and years until I found it one night surfing the net for the lost Napier Optic by pure luck. I never expected to find a dome that matches the size of the Napier Lantern room because I simply wasn’t looking for one and I was amazed to find out that the dome was still sitting there in the same spot after all these years in that yard. The rest is history now so I think it is good idea to make use of this old relic that has been kindly donated to us so we could do a replica in Napier.

There is a fourth option for a replica in Napier of course which is the most expensive option. Simply purchase the original lighthouse site ($1.5 million), demolish the house and the hideous pool and put the lighthouse right back where it was in the first place. It would look just like that but it is unrealistic in my view.

When the Ahuriri Treaty settlement has been completed the Iwi can put a lighthouse right here on that corner, only a stone throw away from the original site. The lighthouse would be able to be seen from Marine Parade if the tress are removed and the walk is oppened up the Iwi would have an amazing tourist attraction in Napier, just like it was 150 years ago.

The view from the proposed prison site, just imagine the trees removed.

Just imagine a lighthouse back here on that corner and the views this lighthouse would have. 180 degree views over Napier city, Cape Kidnappers the Port and Marine Parade. It would become the most expensive real estate in Napier and the most amazing tourist attraction with the walk up to the lighthouse from Marine Parade.