Tairawhiti Museum & Brewery Tour in Gisborne – Day 270, Part 2

Today we have a super packed day in Gisborne we are surfing in the morning, museuming in the afternoon, and beer tasting on the evening. Woo!

Previously on Day 270 Part 1 we met up with Frank which is a legend in the gisborne area and he took the time to teach us all about surfing it was an intense competition between Laura and Ito whom is going to be able to stand the longest on the board. She won, and now the continuation of Day 270.

Next up on our Gisborne travel itinerary is the Tairawhiti Museum which is the regional museum for the Girsborne area. In fact, tairawhiti is the Maori name for this region.

And the good thing is that we arrive right on time for their guided tour so we are meeting the museum curator which is gonna take the time to show us some of the most amazing artifacts that the museum hosts.

The Gisborne region is rich in Maori history and that’s why many of the artifacts in the Tairawhiti Museum are from the Maori culture which is really fascinating to look at. For instance, we have a look at this paddle which is an original paddle traded between the Maori and the British Captain James Cook during that first encounter on land. The rest of those paddles can be found in museums all over the world but for us now we are moving into a temporary exhibition of art and different pottery as well as seeing some old photographs of Gisborne.

The museum is here just behind those trees. And that’s Gladstone road running through there and the Wainui Bridge being built.

The next exhibition that we’re gonna be checking out is an exhibition from a local iwi which is a Maori tribe and pardon me for the pronunciation the name of the exhibition is Ko Rongowhakaata. I’m pretty sure I butchered that name but the exhibition is absolutely amazing there is heaps of Maori artifacts. there is even some fences which were from pa sites which were the fortified Maori village back in the days.

There is also a big part of the exhibition dedicated to Te Kooti which is a local Maori chief that did hide from the law enforcement around the Gisborne region for quite a long time.

But moving onto the rest of the exhibition of the museum, the next place that we’re gonna be spending time in is the Te Moana exhibition which is all about the sea.

As a coastal city, Gisborne has huge relationship with the water. So there’s loads of artifacts here both Maori and European such as a cutaway ocean going waka, and waka is the Moari word for canoe, as well as fishing hooks, fishing nets and we also see a little diagram of that first encounter between the British and the Maori on land.

And for the next exhibition we are staying on theme.

That’s only fitting that we’re spending some time in the surf section of the museum since we have been surfing this morning and Laura and I are both exhausted from surfing this morning. At least Frank didn’t make us surf on that. Ah that’s a picture of Frank. No, it’s not it’s another old guy.

Believe it or not the Tairawhiti Museum is a small provisional museum but there is so much to see so we are already moving onto the next exhibition this one is the Star of Canada which was a massive vessel.

The story behind the Star of Canada is that the ship wrecked off the coast of Gisborne and was helped by the locals and obviously they gathered quite a few of the parts of it so it can be enjoyed as an exhibition. but moving on, there is really a lot here, we are checking a more modern collection and it’s a lot of local art and basically it’s a lot of modern twists onto Maori classics.

But believe it or not we are already moving onto the next exhibition, yes, there is that much to see in this tiny museum. It’s so cool. This exhibition is the Whyllie House which is basically one of the first examples of European style houses in Gisborne. This is a great insight in how people used to live back in the day here in New Zealand and the first thing that I notice is how small they were. Every single ceiling and doorway is actually much smaller than our current average and that’s because back in the day people were a little bit shorter.

And speaking of short, we are now moving onto the Sunshine Brewery where we meet one of the shortest brewer in the country.

Er Robin, I don’t think you can say that. Our guide is actually super knowledgeable and he’s showing us the behind the scenes of the Sunshine Brewery going through the brewing process and really sort of casual non rehearsed way which is really way which is really cool. And then after we’ve done a little bit of a brewery tour we are moving next door to the tap room so we can start trying some of that delicious beer.

As you all know the highlight of any brewery tour is the tasters at the end so we are heading to tap room where we realise we are getting some very very generous tasters, about a quarter of a pint for each taster and we’re getting two trays each that’s 10 beers total out of the 18 that we serve here at the Sunshine Brewery.

The team here take the time to go through all the different beers we’re trying as well as giving us a little bit of paper with taster notes on which are hilariously written and incredibly accurate.

As per every single beer tasting ever we obviously have our favourite. I really like the Tex Mex which is kind of a Mexican inspired beer it’s like a Corona but without having to put the lime in it it’s pretty awesome and it was an awesome day.

Indian Pale Ale, futuristic Gisborne. That’s the description.

Futuristic?

Should be coming as a pill and you eat it and it’s beer. That would be futuristic.

That is futuristic. Yes, I would describe that as futuristic too.

That’s actually weird.