Baring Head Lighthouse is a concrete

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

Baring Head Baring Head ( mi, Ōrua-pouanui, officially gazetted as Baring Head / Ōrua-pouanui) is a headland, located between Wellington Harbour and Palliser Bay at the southern end of the North Island of New Zealand. It marks the southern end of Fitzro ...

in the

Wellington Region Greater Wellington, also known as the Wellington Region (Māori: ''Te Upoko o te Ika''), is a non-unitary region of New Zealand that occupies the southernmost part of the North Island. The region covers an area of , and has a population of T ...

of the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

of New Zealand, with an LED beacon powered by mains electricity. It is owned and operated by

Maritime New Zealand Maritime New Zealand (New Zealand Maritime Safety Authority) is a Crown entity and also a state maritime safety authority responsible for protecting the maritime transport sequence and marine environment within New Zealand and maintaining safety ...

, and can be accessed via walking tracks in the southern area of the East Harbour Regional Park, south of

Wainuiomata Wainuiomata () is a large suburb of Lower Hutt, in the Wellington Region of New Zealand's North Island. Origin of name The word 'Wainui-o-mata' is a Māori name made up of the words Wai = water, Nui = big, O = of, and Mata – which could refer ...

. The lighthouse tower is , but the hilltop elevation gives a focal height of . The light range is . The lighthouse was built to be the main approach light to Wellington Harbour, as well as a coastal light for

Cook Strait Cook Strait ( mi, Te Moana-o-Raukawa) separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The strait connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast. It is wide at its narrowest point,McLintock, A H, ...

. Lit on 18 June 1935, it replaced the light at Pencarrow Head, which was decommissioned later that year. The lighthouse was initially powered by a diesel generator but was converted to mains electricity in 1950. The 1000 W light was fully automated in 1989 and demanned. In February 2005, the original lens was replaced by a flashing

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

beacon visible from up to .

References

External links

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Lighthouses of New Zealand
''Maritime New Zealand'' Lighthouses completed in 1935 Lighthouses in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Lower Hutt Cook Strait 1930s architecture in New Zealand Wellington Harbour Transport buildings and structures in the Wellington Region {{lighthouse-stub

See also

References

External links