Bluff – a lighthouse keeper’s story

When Robyn Valentine was preparing to have her and Don’s second child, she refused to leave the lighthouse at Dog Island, out in Foveaux Strait. You’ve done the lambs and the calves, she told Don, so you can do me too. When a three-monthly ship visit to restock supplies on the remote island coincided with the due date of their child, she was flattered to be invited aboard for tea with the captain. Don, meanwhile, tossed her suitcase on a dinghy out to the ship and waved goodbye from shore as the ship pulled anchor and took her away to have their child on the mainland.