LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER MAROONED IN TOWN

Press, Volume C, Issue 29520, 23 May 1961, Page 9

LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER MAROONED IN TOWN

(New Zealand Press Association)

■ INVERCARGILL, May 22. • A lighthouse keeper, Mr T. Clark, the self-styled “King I of Fiordland,” is having a • lot of trouble getting back ’ to his domain. ! With his wife and five sons he flew to Invercargill a . week ago so the family could , have a medical check-up and . was due to return by amphiI bian aircraft last Wednes- ■ day. Then the weather took a ’ hand and Mr Clark, used to . being isolated at New Zea- . land’s south-west extremity, : has been marooned in Inver- : cargill. At first high winds prei vented the aircraft from i landing with the Clark family in Preservation inlet. Tremendous seas are now . rolling in so big that the I lighthouse boat cannot be launched to make the six-

mile journey up the inlet to the bay where the aircraft lands. A 30-knot wind rules out any attempt by the aircraft I to land in Preservation inlet I but all week it has blown I far harder than that, gusting I to 80 knots and more at I times. In the meantime members I of the Clark family are en- I joying civilisation, but not so I much that they are not I keenly awaiting return to I Puysegur Point tomorrow, I weather permitting.