Waipapa Point Lighthouse — Attraction in Waihopai Toetoe Community

The Waipapa Point Lighthouse was first lit on 1 January 1884. This was one of the last two wooden lighthouses built in New Zealand.

It was constructed in response to one of New Zealand's worst shipping disasters and its worst civilian shipwreck; the wreck of the passenger steamer Tararua on rocky reefs off of Waipapa Point on 29 April 1881. The ship was on one of its regular trips between Otago and Melbourne, via Bluff, when it struck the reef. 131 lives were lost - all but 20 of the 151 people onboard.

In 1975 the lighthouse was automated and the keepers withdrawn. The light is monitored remotely from Maritime New Zealand's Wellington office.

How old is the earth? Many geologists speculated that the Earth is ancient but couldn't give an actual date.

Scottish natural philosopher named James Hutton wrote his revolutionary book Theory of the Earth in 1785. Hutton reasoned that the processes shaping the Earth, such as erosion and sedimentation, occur at an extraordinarily slow rate and have always occurred at this slow rate.

Sir Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand's only Nobel prize winner, in 1905, suggested that using radioactive elements with long half-lives, such as uranium, you could determine and work out the ages of rocks and hence the age of the Earth.

Curio Bay is of international significance for its Petrified Forest dating back to the Jurassic period. It is estimated that it's 176 million years old!

Here at Waipapa Point is a petrified forest! If you look, you will see. So I would estimate it is the same age as at Curio Bay.

Buried by volcanic mud flows and now exposed by the erosive power of the sea.

At Waipapa Point, sea lions can be observed and from this vantage point you can see...

Beautiful scenic spot at this South Island's most southerly lighthouse, great ocean vistas, rocks and being nearly high tide the crashing of the waves sending great stays of seawater into the air. Found some neat stones to take home and add to my collection, although I need to look around a bit better from just looking for stones as I nearly walked into a large sleeping bull Furseal which could have been interesting ,I definitely know too keep distance between me and any seal as they move very fast. We had seen a couple of young men try to close in on a young female seal a few days earlier and were very lucky to not have been caught and seriously hurt. This is a must stop spot if...

A beautiful, historical place to visit, one of the rare wooden lighthouses built in the 19th century. There is lot of history here, some somber, about the ship wreckage of the passenger steamer Tararua on reefs off Waipapa Point on 29 April 1881, losing131 lives out of 151 onboard. Stories about the lighthouse keeper and his family, garden, farm that kept them going are well written down in the shelter house. This lighthouse was built aftermath of the shipwreck and first lit in1884. The southern and eastern seas are rough but the west side bay is much calmer and you may meet sea...