Puysegur Point

Puysegur Point is located in the far southwest of the South Island of New Zealand.[1] It lies within Fiordland National Park on the southern head of Preservation Inlet. It lies 145 kilometres west-northwest of Invercargill. It is the site of a lighthouse station now automated but for many years the home of 3 married permanent lighthouse keepers. The original wooden lighthouse was burnt down in 1943 by a man who had recently left a psychiatric hospital and made his way down to Coal Island across the fjord from the lighthouse. He decided the light was a deliberate plot to keep him awake at night by shining in his window so took matters into his own hands. He held all the keepers hostage with a rifle, smashed the radio telephone and set fire to the lighthouse. The concrete lighthouse which replaced it has now in turn been replaced by two automated beacons.

Puysegar Point & Lighthouse - from the North

Puysegur Point

A large earthquake[2] in this region on 15 July 2009 pushed Puysegur Point closer to Australia by 30 cm.[3] Humpback whales pass the point during annual migrations.[4]

Puysegur Point and the foundations of the old Lighthouse.