Mokohinau Island
Lighthouse overview
The Mokohinau Islands Lighthouse is on Burgess Island, in the middle of the three main islands of the Mokohinau group. It is one of the most distant lighthouses from the mainland and marks the northern approach to the Hauraki Gulf.
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Lighthouse feature: |
Details |
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Location: |
latitude 35°54’ south, longitude 175°07’ east |
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Elevation: |
52 metres above sea level |
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Construction: |
concrete with stonework |
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Tower height: |
14 metres |
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Light configuration: |
rotating LED beacon |
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Light flash character: |
white light flashing once every 10 seconds |
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Power source: |
batteries charged by solar panels |
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Range: |
19 nautical miles (35 kilometres) |
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Date light first lit: |
1883 |
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Automated: |
1980 |
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Demanned: |
1980 |
Access to Mokohinau Islands Lighthouse
Mokohinau Island Lighthouse station, on Burgess Island is accessible to the public. The lighthouse is not open to visitors.
History of Mokohinau Islands Lighthouse
The site for Mokohinau Islands Lighthouse was chosen because it gives seafarers a good landfall position when they arrive in New Zealand from the Pacific Ocean.
The light was first lit in 1883.
A German destroyer may have used the light as a reference point when laying mines in nearby shipping lanes. These mines were laid to sink the steamer RMS Niagara in June 1940.
As a result, the light on Mokohinau was extinguished and not lit again until 1947.
Operation of the light
The light was originally powered by oil. In 1939, it was converted to diesel-generated electricity.
In 1996, Maritime NZ removed the original light and associated equipment and installed a rotating beacon fitted with a 35-watt tungsten halogen bulb inside the original tower.
Battery banks charged by solar panels now power the light. Mokohinau was one of the last lighthouses to be automated. The last keepers left in 1980.
In 2018, the light was upgraded to an LED rotating beacon with a 12-volt power system.
Life at Mokohinau Islands Lighthouse
The isolation of the Mokohinau Islands from the mainland caused significant hardship for early keepers and their families. There was no communication with the mainland, and mail and stores arrived only three times a year.
This caused constant worry for the keepers because boats were often delayed. After four months, food supplies would be very limited and keepers had to live on whatever they could find on the island.
Only a few years after the light was established, the keepers felt this problem had gone far enough and expressed this in writing to a Cabinet Minister.
In 1908, the keepers were still in the same situation, so they called upon Kiwi ingenuity. One of the keepers made a tin boat with tin sails. He cut a hatchway on the deck and placed three letters in it, one to the then Marine Department, one to the nearest general store, and one to a friend. He painted instructions on the deck asking whoever found the boat to send the letters on. When the wind was right, the boat set sail. The boat reached the mainland and was found on a beach. Within nine days of leaving Mokohinau, a stores ship was sent to the island. The Auckland Museum still has the tin boat on display, known as the “smallest mail boat in the world”.
As the twentieth century progressed, the lighthouse was fitted with radios, ending its isolation. Despite this, the Mokohinau Islands Lighthouse was not a favourite with keepers.