All New Zealand Fresnel lenses/optics below and the information I have collected may not be 100% accurate.150 years have passed since these lenses below had arrived in NZ. MD had to manage all these lenses without trained lighthouse engineers in the later years and everything was run on a shoe string. Domes and lenses/parts where simply swapped around. Lighthouses where also moved around so lenses got damaged of course or lost but it is kind of obvious that most of the real valuable and best looking 4th/5th/6th order fresnel lenses have disappeared over the years. So far I have worked out that the Lyttelton and Nelson lenses are still in their original homes and one lens each in Timaru and Oamaru. The Auckland Maritime museum got the Bean Rock, Ponui Passage and the French Pass 5th or 6th order lens is still in the original dome but that is about it of all the smaller lenses we had in New Zealand so far.
I believe that Wellington's Somes Island lens is the biggest loss for NZ. This was confirmed by TDHL Timaru. Neither MNZ or TDHL has any idea where this historic lens ended up, they can't even tell me when this lens was removed from the Timaru Jacks Point lighthouse. That 4th order lens was New Zealand's first harbour light in 1886 right in the middle of Wellington Harbour. In my view one of the oldest and most important lenses New Zealand had historically and important for our Maritime History. For me it is a National treasure of our colonial past. That tower and lens was moved to Timaru Jack's Point 1903. A beautiful Chance Brothers 1866 - 270 degree 4th order lens valued $300,000US. The Napier Bluff Hill 4th order lens 180 degree with 180 degree copper reflector going missing around 1949 valued also around $300,000 US depending on condition. The Hokitika 5th order 180 degree lens with 180 degree glass reflector also confirmed missing by a researcher in Hokitika.
One can only assume that these three confirmed lost lenses have in fact been taken by people at some stage after World War II when navigation changed in the eighties. Or maybe all these missing optic lenses had wings and they all flew back home to Birmingham UK after NZ Navigation was automated? I was not even born in this country but I am amazed that nobody in Wellington or NZ ever wondered what happened to that unique historic lens? I am also still looking for the 5th order lenses from New Plymouth, Gisborne, the two x Tory Channel lenses, Karori Rock, Tuahine Point & 6th order lenses from Westport, Greymouth, Whanganui, Foxton and Waitara as well as the Patea lenses. I am aware that most people accept such historic losses and normalise and forget about it. I rather acknowledge and talk about such lost Maritime Heritage and try to recover some of these artefacts again if possible, that is why I am here, I just like old Fresnel lenses.
I simply like to take photos of the lenses that are left in NZ and publish these lenses in a book. What is the point writing a book about lighthouses but you never get to see the actual lenses that are or have been in these lighthouses doing the job of lightening the coastline? I look at all these lenses as a form of Optic Art as well as the most important "earliest" part of our Maritime Heritage. A town without their original port light is like a man without a hat for me, there is always something missing and it does not feel right. I just like to find out what has happened to all these 51 artefacts that MNZ looked after during the last 150 years. I think trying to recover these lenses again makes sense because it is possible that some of these lenses are all still out there somewhere here or overseas. All the bigger heavy lenses are still here in NZ for obvious reasons so I can take photos of what is still left in NZ. Most of todays valuable smaller optic lenses have disappeared, I guess for various reasons such as survival, dishonesty, or even people taking it because they wanted to protect historic artefacts.
The Patea lens was lost in a fire so accidents or losses like that happened off course but loosing maybe ten of the most valuable and beautiful Fresnel lenses New Zealand had originally is rather hard to swallow for me, that is why I ended up not just looking for the Napier lens but also for every lens NZ had around 1900. I have all original plans and lens drawings thanks the Maritime New Zealand so I can at least recreate a replica image of what each town in NZ has lost. It helps me to tell these small towns Maritime history in my book. One can say that I did a crash course in Fresnel lens history & manufacture during the last four years. I have a fair idea now what the value of most Fresnel lenses are worldwide. These historic lost lenses can still be recovered again in my view, here in NZ or overseas. I am in regular contact with Chance Brothers Australia and USA, they are actively searching for the Somes Island Lens in the USA as well as Australia because I suspect that most of these NZ missing lenses ended up overseas.
My research has become a hobby and an interest for me and just maybe I will find one of these NZ missing lenses along the way. As soon as a lens would be located, I would start a "Give a Little" page trying to raise the money. If either of these lenses is located overseas, I will pay market value ($500,000), if located in NZ I will pay $70,000 which is the price of a reproduction anyway. I would like these lenses to come back home so I can use such a recovered lens for a replica lighthouse in Napier so our historic Heritage I Prison in Coote Road can be saved as well as our unique New Zealand Maritime History in Napier. I think asking to what happened to all these missing lenses and trying to recover them again is just an obvious thing to do because so far nobody appears to have even noticed that the Wellington Optic Lens is even missing in NZ? This is 1866 optic art and an engineering accomplishment at the time. A replica of this lens would cost $70,000 with only acrylic prisms today.
Napier's missing 4th order Chance Brothers 1876 fixed lens,180 degree
4th order lens in USA, identical to the lost Somes Island Wellington Optic Lens: NZ first Harbour light
The Lyttelton Lighthouse Lens, 360 degree 4th order Fresnel Lens. Picture taken July 2023. 
360 degree optic lens in Lyttelton Port. The most valuable optic lens in New Zealand in my view, still in that same lighthouse today
The Nelson Boulder Bank Lighthouse 180 degree 4th order Fresnel Lens (photo credit: Nelson Port)
Nugget Point lighthouse 1st order Fresnel lens
Dog Island lighthouse 2nd order Fresnel Lens (Photo credit: Plimmer’s Ark Gallery, Museum of Wellington City and Sea.)
Lighthouse lens from Bean Rock lighthouse, 5th order lens by Chance Brothers 1878 Photo credit: Maritime Museum
Same lens, different angle Photo credit: Maritime Museum Auckland
5th order lens Chance Brothers Ponui Passage Photo credit: Maritime Museum Auckland
Karori Rock Lighthouse & Tuahine Point Lighthouse 2x 4th or 5th order lenses! No trace of these lenses or pictures……..yet:-)
Kahurangi 4th order Photo/video credit: Ashton McGill Maritime NZ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-xKvRnMv-s
Manukau Head Lighthouse lens 3rd order Photo credit: Bruce Russell Manuka Head Lighthouse
This lens is apparently the second one that was formerly installed at the Buller region's Cape Foulwind lighthouse.
Centre Island 1st order optic lens in the Bluff Maritime Museum Photo credit: Maritime Museum Bluff
Cape Saunders 1865 Industrial Exhibition Dunedin 
This looks somewhat patched up with this lens? I wonder what happened to the 1865 lens at Saunders lighthouse?
New concrete lighthouse tower behind the old demolished tower
Taiaroa Head lighthouse lens 3rd order lens
"This Whanganui River navigation lamp is the only complete surviving light, used in Whanganui, in existence. The body is made of copper and the lens and lens shield is made of glass. This lamp is one of about twenty navigation lights that marked the main shipping channel between the Whanganui River mouth and the Whanganui Town Wharf, several kilometres upstream. The Town Wharf was in use, although on a reduced scale, as late as 1955. By 1911, however, the main shipping focus had begun to shift to Castlecliff Harbour at the mouth of the river. The channel markers stood on a tripod of hardwood pikes driven into the riverbed, on shore-based towers along the banks of the river, or on jetties such as the now derelict Imlay and Gasworks wharves. The rock walls and wooden groynes built to maintain a deep channel can still be seen at low tide and can be a hidden danger to unwary boaters. The lights were removed in the mid-1950s when, through the closure of the Town Wharf, shipping no longer travelled upstream. Edmundsons Ltd, the makers who were based in Dublin, made many of the pilot lights, beacons and lighthouses installed in New Zealand."
The lens on the left is in the Dublin museum. "1844 - apprentice to his brother-in-law Joshua Edmundson's business in Capel Street in Dublin and ran the business from 1848; interested in developing lights for lighthouses and supplying power to light them; 1877 - invented 31-day oil lamp fitted in a buoy or mounted on a tower."
https://www.greatlighttq.org/app/uploads/2018/03/Wigham-John-R-Inventor-KL-History.pdf
The picture on the centre is the same lens in the Whanganui museum. The lens on the right now belongs to the Grand Design Lighthouse couple. I am aware that there are a few optics still out there in NZ that have ended up in private hands (at least this Whanganui lens ended up in some kind of private lighthouse dream, fair enough I had that dream myself a few years ago so I understand and support that). However I suggest an amnesty from MNZ to get similar sort of Maritime history objects back into MNZ hands. A NZ Fresnel amnesty could uncover a few more lost lenses in NZ if we try, we just got to ask back for them at least for the sake of our Maritime heritage.
Cape Egmont Replica 2nd. order Fresnel Lens & Original (right)
Akaroa Lighthouse 2nd order optic lens Akaroa postcard. The back reads. "The Akaroa Lighthouse at night and detail of the interior showing the original kerosene light unit with hand ground Fresnel lens made in France 1878 and the driving mechanism made in Edinburgh in the same year. The light was first lit in January 1880
Pouto 2nd order lens (now in the Dargaville museum). Photo credit: Dargaville Museum Research
Pouto Point with 2nd order dome removed and replaced with the 5th order Hokitika dome? Why? That looks ridiculous and made a mess of a nice lighthouse! That dome matches the original Napier Dome as well.
French Pass Lighthouse optic 5th order
Farewell Spit Lighthouse 2nd order optic lens?
Portland Island Lighthouse, now in Wairoa. 2nd order Optic lens
Moeraki Katiki Point Lighthouse 3rd order Optic lens
Baring Head Lighthouse 3rd order Optic lens
Cape Palliser Lighthouse 2nd order Optic lens
Castle Point Lighthouse 2nd order lens (Video: Ashton McGill) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_TniaSxp5M
Matiu - Somes Island lighthouse 2nd order Optic Lens in second tower
Mokohinau Island lighthouse 1st order Optic lens 1883 (Disassembled in storage at Auckland Maritime museum) All upper & lower reflectors, middle reflectors and metal components.
Puysegur Point 1st order Optic lens: https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/features/96285536/what-the-demented-arsonist-did
Tiritiri Lighthouse 1st order Fresnel Lens Photo: Anne Rimmer https://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/media/wf2nbqav/tiritiri_matangi_150th_anniversary_of_lighthouse.pdf 1865 optic, Disassembled in storage at Maritime museum
Gisbourne 1964 so there is bigger more modern optic lens on that wharf but where is the original old school 5th order Fresnel lens I wonder? Has anybody got information about this missing Gisborne Maritime Heritage?
Taiaroa Head Lighthouse 3rd order Optic lens Photo below: Izumi Schmidt Uchida
Godley Head 2nd order Optic (Photos: Christchurch Star) All upper and lower reflectors and middle refractors & metal base in Maritime museum
Vandalism! This intentionally damage to heritage should be punished with jail time!
Stephens Island 1st order Optic lens
Timaru Jack's Point, 4th order Optic lens, this is the only MNZ lens, nobody knows anything about. I can’t even establish when this optic was removed from that tower.
Pencarrow Head 2nd order optic
Brothers Island Lighthouse 2nd order lens, some parts of the lens located in Picton museum
Timaru 5th order 180 degree lens (Messrs Barbier & Fenestre Fresnel Lens) 
Original Cape Wanbrow 5th order lens still in Oamaru
Cape Wanbrow Oamaru
East Cape Lighthouse 2nd order lens Picture Credit: Ashton McGill MNZ
Picture Credit: Ashton McGill MNZ
Cape Maria van Diemen Lighthouse 1st order lens (photo credit: Auckland Museum)
Hi there,
I’ve searched our database and other sources but couldn’t find any information about the lens / lantern/pilot light. However there is a reference to it in this 2012 Marlborough Express article:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/community-papers/6965548/Pilots-House-light-to-glow-stronger
I suggest you get in touch with the Havelock Museum to see if the light has been returned to them since this article was written or whether it is still on display in the old Pilot House. I also enclose an excerpt from a book that mentions the Pilot House in case it is of interest.
Good luck with your research,
Kind regards,
Wendy Harnett
Archivist
Marlborough Museum & Archives
Brayshaw Heritage Park
26 Arthur Baker Place
BLENHEIM 7201
Tel (03) 578 1712 / 021 1905627
www.marlboroughmuseum.org.nz Facebook.com/marlboroughmuseum
More smaller Lenses by the Wairau bar, this optic was gifted to the old pilot house.
Wairau River 5th order lens, located in the old pilot house by the Wairau River. Best place for it! What an amazing lens, I love it:-)
I believe that Wellington's Somes Island lens is the biggest loss for NZ. This was confirmed by TDHL Timaru. Neither MNZ or TDHL has any idea where this historic lens ended up, they can't even tell me when this lens was removed from the Timaru Jacks Point lighthouse. That 4th order lens was New Zealand's first harbour light in 1886 right in the middle of Wellington Harbour. In my view one of the oldest and most important lenses New Zealand had historically and important for our Maritime History. For me it is a National treasure of our colonial past. That tower and lens was moved to Timaru Jack's Point 1903. A beautiful Chance Brothers 1866 - 270 degree 4th order lens valued $300,000US. The Napier Bluff Hill 4th order lens 180 degree with 180 degree copper reflector going missing around 1949 valued also around $300,000 US depending on condition. The Hokitika 5th order 180 degree lens with 180 degree glass reflector also confirmed missing by a researcher in Hokitika.
One can only assume that these three confirmed lost lenses have in fact been taken by people at some stage after World War II when navigation changed in the eighties. Or maybe all these missing optic lenses had wings and they all flew back home to Birmingham UK after NZ Navigation was automated? I was not even born in this country but I am amazed that nobody in Wellington or NZ ever wondered what happened to that unique historic lens? I am also still looking for the 5th order lenses from New Plymouth, Gisborne, the two x Tory Channel lenses, Karori Rock, Tuahine Point & 6th order lenses from Westport, Greymouth, Whanganui, Foxton and Waitara as well as the Patea lenses. I am aware that most people accept such historic losses and normalise and forget about it. I rather acknowledge and talk about such lost Maritime Heritage and try to recover some of these artefacts again if possible, that is why I am here, I just like old Fresnel lenses.
I simply like to take photos of the lenses that are left in NZ and publish these lenses in a book. What is the point writing a book about lighthouses but you never get to see the actual lenses that are or have been in these lighthouses doing the job of lightening the coastline? I look at all these lenses as a form of Optic Art as well as the most important "earliest" part of our Maritime Heritage. A town without their original port light is like a man without a hat for me, there is always something missing and it does not feel right. I just like to find out what has happened to all these 51 artefacts that MNZ looked after during the last 150 years. I think trying to recover these lenses again makes sense because it is possible that some of these lenses are all still out there somewhere here or overseas. All the bigger heavy lenses are still here in NZ for obvious reasons so I can take photos of what is still left in NZ. Most of todays valuable smaller optic lenses have disappeared, I guess for various reasons such as survival, dishonesty, or even people taking it because they wanted to protect historic artefacts.
The Patea lens was lost in a fire so accidents or losses like that happened off course but loosing maybe ten of the most valuable and beautiful Fresnel lenses New Zealand had originally is rather hard to swallow for me, that is why I ended up not just looking for the Napier lens but also for every lens NZ had around 1900. I have all original plans and lens drawings thanks the Maritime New Zealand so I can at least recreate a replica image of what each town in NZ has lost. It helps me to tell these small towns Maritime history in my book. One can say that I did a crash course in Fresnel lens history & manufacture during the last four years. I have a fair idea now what the value of most Fresnel lenses are worldwide. These historic lost lenses can still be recovered again in my view, here in NZ or overseas. I am in regular contact with Chance Brothers Australia and USA, they are actively searching for the Somes Island Lens in the USA as well as Australia because I suspect that most of these NZ missing lenses ended up overseas.
My research has become a hobby and an interest for me and just maybe I will find one of these NZ missing lenses along the way. As soon as a lens would be located, I would start a "Give a Little" page trying to raise the money. If either of these lenses is located overseas, I will pay market value ($500,000), if located in NZ I will pay $70,000 which is the price of a reproduction anyway. I would like these lenses to come back home so I can use such a recovered lens for a replica lighthouse in Napier so our historic Heritage I Prison in Coote Road can be saved as well as our unique New Zealand Maritime History in Napier. I think asking to what happened to all these missing lenses and trying to recover them again is just an obvious thing to do because so far nobody appears to have even noticed that the Wellington Optic Lens is even missing in NZ? This is 1866 optic art and an engineering accomplishment at the time. A replica of this lens would cost $70,000 with only acrylic prisms today.
Napier's missing 4th order Chance Brothers 1876 fixed lens,180 degree
4th order lens in USA, identical to the lost Somes Island Wellington Optic Lens: NZ first Harbour lightThe Lyttelton Lighthouse Lens, 360 degree 4th order Fresnel Lens. Picture taken July 2023. 360 degree optic lens in Lyttelton Port. The most valuable optic lens in New Zealand in my view, still in that same lighthouse today
The Nelson Boulder Bank Lighthouse 180 degree 4th order Fresnel Lens (photo credit: Nelson Port)Nugget Point lighthouse 1st order Fresnel lens
Dog Island lighthouse 2nd order Fresnel Lens (Photo credit: Plimmer’s Ark Gallery, Museum of Wellington City and Sea.)
Lighthouse lens from Bean Rock lighthouse, 5th order lens by Chance Brothers 1878 Photo credit: Maritime Museum
Same lens, different angle Photo credit: Maritime Museum Auckland
5th order lens Chance Brothers Ponui Passage Photo credit: Maritime Museum AucklandKarori Rock Lighthouse & Tuahine Point Lighthouse 2x 4th or 5th order lenses! No trace of these lenses or pictures……..yet:-)Kahurangi 4th order Photo/video credit: Ashton McGill Maritime NZ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-xKvRnMv-sManukau Head Lighthouse lens 3rd order Photo credit: Bruce Russell Manuka Head LighthouseThis lens is apparently the second one that was formerly installed at the Buller region's Cape Foulwind lighthouse.Centre Island 1st order optic lens in the Bluff Maritime Museum Photo credit: Maritime Museum BluffCape Saunders 1865 Industrial Exhibition Dunedin This looks somewhat patched up with this lens? I wonder what happened to the 1865 lens at Saunders lighthouse?New concrete lighthouse tower behind the old demolished tower
Taiaroa Head lighthouse lens 3rd order lens"This Whanganui River navigation lamp is the only complete surviving light, used in Whanganui, in existence. The body is made of copper and the lens and lens shield is made of glass. This lamp is one of about twenty navigation lights that marked the main shipping channel between the Whanganui River mouth and the Whanganui Town Wharf, several kilometres upstream. The Town Wharf was in use, although on a reduced scale, as late as 1955. By 1911, however, the main shipping focus had begun to shift to Castlecliff Harbour at the mouth of the river. The channel markers stood on a tripod of hardwood pikes driven into the riverbed, on shore-based towers along the banks of the river, or on jetties such as the now derelict Imlay and Gasworks wharves. The rock walls and wooden groynes built to maintain a deep channel can still be seen at low tide and can be a hidden danger to unwary boaters. The lights were removed in the mid-1950s when, through the closure of the Town Wharf, shipping no longer travelled upstream. Edmundsons Ltd, the makers who were based in Dublin, made many of the pilot lights, beacons and lighthouses installed in New Zealand."
The lens on the left is in the Dublin museum. "1844 - apprentice to his brother-in-law Joshua Edmundson's business in Capel Street in Dublin and ran the business from 1848; interested in developing lights for lighthouses and supplying power to light them; 1877 - invented 31-day oil lamp fitted in a buoy or mounted on a tower."
https://www.greatlighttq.org/app/uploads/2018/03/Wigham-John-R-Inventor-KL-History.pdf
The picture on the centre is the same lens in the Whanganui museum. The lens on the right now belongs to the Grand Design Lighthouse couple. I am aware that there are a few optics still out there in NZ that have ended up in private hands (at least this Whanganui lens ended up in some kind of private lighthouse dream, fair enough I had that dream myself a few years ago so I understand and support that). However I suggest an amnesty from MNZ to get similar sort of Maritime history objects back into MNZ hands. A NZ Fresnel amnesty could uncover a few more lost lenses in NZ if we try, we just got to ask back for them at least for the sake of our Maritime heritage.
Cape Egmont Replica 2nd. order Fresnel Lens & Original (right)
Akaroa Lighthouse 2nd order optic lens Akaroa postcard. The back reads. "The Akaroa Lighthouse at night and detail of the interior showing the original kerosene light unit with hand ground Fresnel lens made in France 1878 and the driving mechanism made in Edinburgh in the same year. The light was first lit in January 1880Pouto 2nd order lens (now in the Dargaville museum). Photo credit: Dargaville Museum Research
Pouto Point with 2nd order dome removed and replaced with the 5th order Hokitika dome? Why? That looks ridiculous and made a mess of a nice lighthouse! That dome matches the original Napier Dome as well.
French Pass Lighthouse optic 5th orderFarewell Spit Lighthouse 2nd order optic lens?
Portland Island Lighthouse, now in Wairoa. 2nd order Optic lensMoeraki Katiki Point Lighthouse 3rd order Optic lens
Baring Head Lighthouse 3rd order Optic lens
Cape Palliser Lighthouse 2nd order Optic lens
Castle Point Lighthouse 2nd order lens (Video: Ashton McGill) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_TniaSxp5M
Matiu - Somes Island lighthouse 2nd order Optic Lens in second towerMokohinau Island lighthouse 1st order Optic lens 1883 (Disassembled in storage at Auckland Maritime museum) All upper & lower reflectors, middle reflectors and metal components. Puysegur Point 1st order Optic lens: https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/features/96285536/what-the-demented-arsonist-did
Tiritiri Lighthouse 1st order Fresnel Lens Photo: Anne Rimmer https://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/media/wf2nbqav/tiritiri_matangi_150th_anniversary_of_lighthouse.pdf 1865 optic, Disassembled in storage at Maritime museum
Gisbourne 1964 so there is bigger more modern optic lens on that wharf but where is the original old school 5th order Fresnel lens I wonder? Has anybody got information about this missing Gisborne Maritime Heritage?
Taiaroa Head Lighthouse 3rd order Optic lens Photo below: Izumi Schmidt Uchida
Godley Head 2nd order Optic (Photos: Christchurch Star) All upper and lower reflectors and middle refractors & metal base in Maritime museum
Vandalism! This intentionally damage to heritage should be punished with jail time!
Stephens Island 1st order Optic lens
Timaru Jack's Point, 4th order Optic lens, this is the only MNZ lens, nobody knows anything about. I can’t even establish when this optic was removed from that tower.
Pencarrow Head 2nd order optic
Brothers Island Lighthouse 2nd order lens, some parts of the lens located in Picton museumTimaru 5th order 180 degree lens (Messrs Barbier & Fenestre Fresnel Lens) Original Cape Wanbrow 5th order lens still in Oamaru
Cape Wanbrow Oamaru
East Cape Lighthouse 2nd order lens Picture Credit: Ashton McGill MNZPicture Credit: Ashton McGill MNZ
Cape Maria van Diemen Lighthouse 1st order lens (photo credit: Auckland Museum)
Hi there,
I’ve searched our database and other sources but couldn’t find any information about the lens / lantern/pilot light. However there is a reference to it in this 2012 Marlborough Express article:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/community-papers/6965548/Pilots-House-light-to-glow-stronger
I suggest you get in touch with the Havelock Museum to see if the light has been returned to them since this article was written or whether it is still on display in the old Pilot House. I also enclose an excerpt from a book that mentions the Pilot House in case it is of interest.
Good luck with your research,
Kind regards,
Wendy Harnett
Archivist
Marlborough Museum & Archives
Brayshaw Heritage Park
26 Arthur Baker Place
BLENHEIM 7201
Tel (03) 578 1712 / 021 1905627
www.marlboroughmuseum.org.nz Facebook.com/marlboroughmuseum
More smaller Lenses by the Wairau bar, this optic was gifted to the old pilot house.
Wairau River 5th order lens, located in the old pilot house by the Wairau River. Best place for it! What an amazing lens, I love it:-)