Cuvier Island Lighthouse

Cuvier Island Lighthouse guards the approach to Auckland Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf. It marks the first sight of land for ships coming in from the Pacific and is New Zealand’s most distant offshore lighthouse.

Location: 36°26′ S, 175°47′ E
Elevation: 119 metres above sea level
Radio callsign: ZLPV
Construction: cast iron
Tower height: 15 metres
Light configuration: 100 watt rotating beacon
Light flash character: white light flashing once every 15 seconds
Power source: batteries charged by solar panels
Range: 19 nautical miles (35 kilometres)
Date light first lit: 1889
Automated: 1982
Demanned: 1982

In this 1956 video produced for the New Zealand Post Office, Cuvier Island Lighthouse is seen in contact first with the lighthouse tender Endeavour, and then with Auckland Radio ZLD.

1968: Shortly after midday on 22 August, Cuvier Island Radio received a MAYDAY call from the 36ft fishing vessel Relax. The fishing vessel, with two men aboard, had broken down and lost her anchors about a quarter mile from Red Mercury Island, off Coromandel. Shortly after sending the distress message, Relax was wrecked in the breakers. Both men made it to shore and were rescued by a helicopter.¹

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Notes

1. Ingram, C.W.N. (1977). New Zealand shipwrecks, 1795-1975. Wellington, NZ: A.H. & A.W. Reed. p 427