Cape Campbell Lighthouse marks the southern approaches to Cook Strait. It is situated on the eastern coast of New Zealand’s South Island, about 50 kilometres from Blenheim.
In June 2020, Cape Campbell Lighthouse was fitted with a 24-volt Flashing LED beacon, replacing the rotating beacon.
Cape Campbell Lighthouse in 2007
Beacon Callsign: CC
Location: 41°44’ South, 174°17’ East
Elevation: 47 metres above sea level
Construction: cast iron tower, but originally made of wood
Tower height: 22 metres
Light configuration: 24 volt flashing LED 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: 1870
Automated: 1986
Demanned: 1986
Radio at Cape Campbell
By Ian Hutchings*
This station had land access through a farm property as well as a landline telephone, and typically had married lightkeepers.
The radio hut was near the keeper’s house, just a little above the beach and not far from the lighthouse. The hut housed the MF transmitter, although the antenna was about a kilometre away, up on the escarpment. A quad open-wire line on short poles was used to feed the antenna.
Antenna faults were not uncommon, and these meant a visual inspection to see if temporary repairs could be made. The track to the antenna started about 1.5 km away from the radio hut and could be driven with the Post Office Land Rover in good conditions. Walking the transmission line route was difficult and, if a fault was found, quite frustrating, because the poles were slightly too high to access without a ladder!
NZ Nautical Almanac 1973
* Ian Hutchings trained as a radio technician with the New Zealand Post Office in 1965, and worked on a variety of radio installations before obtaining an engineering degree in 1971 and moving to the Wellington Regional Engineers Office He later moved to POHQ and was subsequently Manager, Radio Spectrum Policy under a succession of government ministries. He retired in 2015 and holds the amateur radio callsign ZL2HUT.
