Guiding Light

Guiding Light. . During the busy shipping era of the gold rushes, Cape Foulwind had no lighthouse. It was much later that a timber lighthouse was built. First lit in 1876, its beacon guided vessels to the Buller for half a century before being replaced by the present automated light in a concrete tower., In the early days when the lighthouse was staffed, the cape was quite an isolated place to be. The lighthouse keeper and assistants lived in houses nearby. A few traces of these buildings can still be seen near the original tower foundations., Mystery Wreck , In spite of its dangerous shoreline and treacherous winds, the cape has claimed few ships. The most famous wreck was seen in 1846 by two early pakeha travellers, Heaphy and Brunner, who were told the vessel had carried many bales of wool. It was concluded that this was the Rifleman which had sailed from Hobart for England with a cargo of wool in 1825, never to be seen again. Interest in the wreck resurfaced in 1970 when a farmer digging drains, east of the cape and well above the present highwater mark, came across the remains of what appeared to be a ship. Timber from it was identified as European larch or spruce., Captions , [Left] Cape Foulwind lighthouse keepers residence. , [Right] A hexagonal wooden lighthouse was built in 1876, with a kerosene-fuelled light tended by keepers. It was replaced 50 years later by the present concrete tower and automatic light.