All Fresnel lenses/optics in New Zealand, and the information I have collected may not be 100% accurate. It has been 150 years since these lenses arrived in NZ. MD had to manage all these lenses without trained lighthouse engineers in the later years, running everything on a shoestring budget. Domes and lenses/parts were simply swapped around. Lighthouses were also moved around, and lenses got damaged or lost. It is evident that most of the valuable and best-looking 4th/5th/6th order Fresnel lenses have disappeared over the years. So far, I have determined that the Lyttelton and Nelson 4th order lenses are still in their original homes, and one 5th order lens each in Timaru and Oamaru. The Auckland Maritime Museum has Bean Rock, Ponui Passage, and the French Pass lens may still be in the original dome (need to be confirmed), but that’s about it for the smaller lenses that survived in New Zealand.

I believe that Wellington's Somes Island lens is the biggest loss for NZ. This was confirmed by TDHL Timaru. Neither MNZ nor TDHL has any idea where this historic lens ended up; they couldn't even tell me when this lens was removed from the Timaru Jacks Point lighthouse or when it was decommissioned. That 4th order lens was New Zealand's first harbour light in 1866, right in the middle of Wellington Harbour.

In my opinion, it is one of the oldest and most important lenses historically in New Zealand and crucial for our colonial and Maritime History. It is a national treasure of our colonial past. The tower and lens were moved to Timaru Jack's Point in 1903. It was a beautiful Chance Brothers 1866 - 270 degree 4th order lens valued at $300,000US. The Napier Bluff Hill 4th-order lens, 180 degrees with a 180-degree copper reflector, went missing around 1949 also valued around $300,000 US depending on condition. The Hokitika 5th-order 180-degree lens with a 180 degree glass reflector was 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 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 Tory Channel lenses, Karori Rock, Tuahine Point and 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 would 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 of writing a book about lighthouses if you never get to see the actual lenses that are or have been in these lighthouses, 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 still out there somewhere, here or overseas. All the bigger, heavier lenses are still out here in NZ for obvious reasons, so I can take photos of what is still left in NZ. Most of today's valuable smaller optic lenses have disappeared, I guess for various reasons such as survival, dishonesty, or even people taking them to protect historic artefacts.

The Patea lens was lost in a fire, so accidents or losses like that happen, of course. But losing maybe ten of the most valuable and beautiful Fresnel lenses New Zealand originally had 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 the original plans and lens drawings thanks to 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 the maritime history of these small towns in my book. One could say that I did a crash course in Fresnel lens history and manufacture during the last four years. I have a fair idea now of the value of most Fresnel lenses worldwide. These historically lost lenses can still be recovered, in my view, here in NZ or overseas. I am in regular contact with Chance Brothers Australia and the USA, as they are actively searching for the Somes Island Lens in the USA as well as Australia because I have a hunch that most of these missing NZ lenses ended up overseas, considering the feedback I had.

My research has become a hobby and an interest for me, and just maybe I will find one of these missing NZ lenses along the way. As soon as a lens is located, I would start a "Give a Little" page to try and raise the money. If either of these lenses is located overseas, I will pay market value, if located in NZ. 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 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 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 1874 fixed lens,180 degree
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 todayThe Nelson Boulder Bank Lighthouse 180 degree 4th order Fresnel Lens (photo credit: Nelson Port)Nugget Point lighthouse 1st order Fresnel lensDog 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 Auckland5th 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.

Mount Egmont 2nd order optic lens. Mount Egmont Lighthouse tour: Credit Ashton McGill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah_JbpsSMAU&list=PL2CpBHH7q6j8_EErrUpfUJV_e7LbXbBMA&index=4
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 but photo below is something else. I am still waiting for confirmation of what type and age this lens is and when it was put there.
French Pass Lighthouse tour, credit Ashton McGill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUnwrZlV9oY&list=PL2CpBHH7q6j8_EErrUpfUJV_e7LbXbBMA&index=5
Picture: Ashton McGill MNZ
Farewell Spit Lighthouse 2nd order optic lens?
Portland Island Lighthouse, now in Wairoa. 2nd order Optic lensMoeraki Katiki Point Lighthouse 3rd order Optic lensBaring Head Lighthouse 3rd order Optic lens
Cape Palliser Lighthouse 2nd order Optic lensCastle Point Lighthouse 2nd order lens (Video: Ashton McGill) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_TniaSxp5MMatiu - 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-didTiritiri 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 UchidaGodley 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 lensTimaru 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 OamaruCape Wanbrow Oamaru
East Cape Lighthouse 2nd order lens Picture Credit: Ashton McGill MNZPicture Credit: Ashton McGill MNZCape 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!