The Cape Foulwind Lighthouse is a
lighthouse that is located at
Cape Foulwind, west of the town of
Westport on the
West Coast of New Zealand's
South Island. Perched above the
Tasman Sea
The Tasman Sea ( Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer ...
,
the light guides vessels along the
Buller coast,
and is one of the most accessible lighthouses in the country.
The LED light flashes white once every 12 seconds and has a range .
It is a Category 2 heritage listed structure.
History
The need for a lighthouse was identified during the
goldrush era;
however, it was not until 1 September 1876 that the light was first lit.
The original hexagonal tower was built of
rimu
''Dacrydium cupressinum'', commonly known as rimu, is a large evergreen coniferous tree endemic to the forests of New Zealand. It is a member of the southern conifer group, the podocarps.
The Māori name ''rimu'' comes from the Polynesian ...
. It suffered from rot, and was replaced in 1926 by the present concrete tower with an automated light, which is now operated remotely from
Maritime New Zealand's Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
office.
Traces of foundations of the old tower and the keeper's houses can still be seen.
Access
The lighthouse is an drive west from the town of Westport and a ten-minute walk from the northern end of the Cape Foulwind walkway. The circular walkway goes past the lighthouse, and on to the
New Zealand Fur Seal
''Arctocephalus forsteri'' (common names include the Australasian fur seal, South Australian fur seal, New Zealand fur seal, Antipodean fur seal, or long-nosed fur seal) is a species of fur seal found mainly around southern Australia and New Z ...
colony at Tauranga Bay, with views back to the lighthouse.
Entry into the lighthouse structure itself is not permitted.
Operations
The lighthouse is operated by the
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 ...
, it is registered under the international Admiralty number K4486 and it has the
NGA identifier of 111–5600.
With a focal height of above sea level, the light can be seen for 10 nautical miles.
Its
characteristic is a white flash every twelve seconds, originally fitted with a
Fresnel
Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Newton's corpuscular the ...
optic, it now uses an
LED system fixed to the gallery railing.
Gallery
File:Cape Foulwind old lighthouse info.JPG, Interpretive sign on the walkway
File:Sunset - Cape Foulwind Lighthouse, New Zealand.jpg, Sunset over the lighthouse
File:Steeple,_Cape_Foulwind,_between_1879_and_1929_(3057617388).jpg, Between 1879 and 1929
References
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Lighthouses in New Zealand
Lighthouses completed in 1876
Tourist attractions in the West Coast, New Zealand
Westport, New Zealand
Heritage New Zealand Category 2 historic places in the West Coast, New Zealand
Transport buildings and structures in the West Coast, New Zealand