Photo: Lighthouse Point Otago Peninsula

Up on a high cliff on a point around Otago Peninsula on the South Island of New Zealand you will find Taiaroa Head Lighthouse.

As you make your way around the point into the harbour of the Otago Peninsula off the South Island of New Zealand, you will come across the Taiaroa Head Lighthouse that sits high on a steep rock cliff. Back in the 1850's many ships that sailed the waters of the Otago Peninsula would search for the entrance of the harbour for many days and it was finally decided that a lighthouse was needed at this point.A light was found for this point and brought to the Otago Peninsula in New Zealand in 1863 and in 1865, after two years of planning and construction the light was lit in the Taiaroa Head Lighthouse. It was a red light so that vessels could tell the difference from the lighthouse at the point of Cape Saunders and the Taiaroa Head Lighthouse.Keepers were placed at the lighthouse in Otago Peninsula, but by 1921 the Marine Department decided to withdraw them and the light at this point was then operated by a signalmen. ... continue below the picture...

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... In 1976, the lighthouse was transferred to the harbour board and then to Port Otago Ltd in the year of 1989 and the Taiaroa Head Lighthouse has since been automated and monitored on a regular basis.The seas around this point can become extremely rough and hazardous at times and seamen still search the waters for the Taiaroa Head Lighthouse. Once they locate the point on which the lighthouse sits, their troubles seem to be nearing the end especially in a fierce storm.Taiaroa Head Lighthouse, Otago Peninsula near Dunedin, Otago, South Island, East Coast, New Zealand.