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Kauri Museum |
0593 Matakohe, New Zealand-Aotearoa (Northland) |
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| Address |
5 Church Road, RD1
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| Floor area | 4 000 m² / 43 056 ft² |
Agricultural
- Steam engines/generators/pumps
- Mechanical Music Instruments
- Clocks and Watches
- Craft
- Telephone / Telex
- Biology / Medicine
- Heritage- or City Museum
- Mills
- Home Appliances
- Post
- Tractors
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Opening times
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daily: 9am - 5pm | ||||
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Status from 01/2023
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Adult: $25; Child (5-15 years): $8; Family: $55; Senior/Student: $21 Matakohe Post Office: Free |
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| Contact |
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| Homepage | www.kaurimuseum.com/ | ||||
kaurimuseum.com 
| Location / Directions |
The Kauri Museum is roughly midway between Auckland and the beautiful Bay of Islands. It's a bit over two hours drive to either, depending on traffic. Take the turn off at the Brynderwyn hills (State Highway 1) onto State Highway 12 (towards Dargaville). It is 20 minutes up the road from the turn off. |
Some example model pages for sets you can see there:
| Description | The Remarkable Story of The Greatest Tree in New Zealand. Wikipedia: The museum has over 4000 sq metres of undercover exhibits, including the largest collection of kauri gum in the world, and the largest collection of kauri furniture. It has a model of a 1900s kauri house with furniture and models in the dress of the early years, and an extensive collection of photographs and pioneering memorabilia. On the wall, there are full-scale circumference outlines of the huge trees, including one of 81⁄2 metres, larger even than Tane Mahuta. The museum includes a working mock-up of a steam sawmill. It tells its story from the colonial viewpoint, and presents its representation of the kauri gum industry as part of the process of creating the New Zealand identity. It has little to say about negative aspects, such as the impact on the Māori people. The Kauri Museum has however helped raise awareness of the need to conserve the remaining forest through a display of photographs by the conservationist Stephen King, presented in partnership with the Waipoua Forest Trust. Saw Mill The Museum includes a full sized sawmill, which moves at slow speed so visitors can get up close to see how the mill works. At the centre of the mill is a Davey Paxman compound Portable Steam Engine, built in England in 1921. It is one of only two surviving Paxman compound portables and probably the largest size of Paxman portable ever made. The engine drives a range of saws for ‘breaking down’ giant kauri logs and converting them into planks. Next to the mill a huge band saw with two metre diameter wheels and 12 metres of toothed ribbon steel moves slowly through a large swap kauri log. Smith Wing The Smith Wing shows huge kauri logs and has actual equipment for felling trees, transporting logs, milling timber and collecting kauri gum. Matakohe Post Office From 1909 to 1988 the Matakohe Post Office acted as a centre for the local community. The building itself was built from kauri milled locally. Services offered at the Post Office included postal, banking, telephone, marriage licenses, and official government applications. The Post Office display features dressed models and original equipment. It includes a fascinating exhibition of old telephones and the manual telephone exchange in the Postmaster’s Residence. |
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