ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: The Akaroa Lighthouse is a six-sided wooden weatherboard building which is 12.5 metres high and 5.49 metres wide at the base. Its sides slope inwards to the light platform at the third floor. Entry is at ground level through a tongue and groove door. Narrow stairs rise between each floor. At the third level a door opens onto a balcony with wooden rail and paling balustrade and wooden angled supports, which encircles the tower. The top level which is enclosed by glass arranged in triangular panes is topped by a rounded roof sheathed in copper. The Akaroa light is a second order dioptric holophotal revolving light, hand made in France. The lens, which is over 2 metres high and 1.5 metres in diameter, is constructed of a number of prisms which reflect the light in eight separate beams radially from the tower. The lens rotates in 80 seconds, giving a periodicity of 10 seconds to the flashes which are visible to 40 kilometres. The clockwork rotation mechanism is driven by weights descending in the tower. The light originally used a wick burner kerosene system, but in 1917 a Chand incandescent petroleum vapour kerosene burner was installed. In 1951 a 1000 watt electric system with an output of one million candlepower was installed. MODIFICATIONS: 1951 Light electrified. 1980 Lighthouse relocated at Akaroa township; many cladding timbers replaced; balcony strengthened and pipe stair rails replaced with brass rails; sprinklers installed.