[5] Entry to the site and tower is by permit only, because it is part of the Stephens Island Nature Reserve, managed by the Department of Conservation.

Takapou – more commonly known as matipo – trees grew right down to the water’s edge, giving the effect that the island floated in the sea.

[7] In 1770, Captain James Cook sailed past, and named the island after Sir Philip Stephens, the Secretary of the British Admiralty Board.

[7] As the new colony grew in the 1850s, the island was identified as an obvious location for one of a scheme of lighthouses to be erected on significant headlands along New Zealand's 15,000 kilometres (9,300 mi) long coastline.

[1] Several factors, including remoteness, turbulent Cooks Strait and steep terrain, made it a difficult and hazardous to build.

[8] Before the lighthouse and associated dwellings could be built, a work party arrived in 1891 to construct a boat landing ledge and vertical tramway up the precipitous cliffs.