Kauri Museum in Northland – Day 364

We are on day 364 out of 365 days. It is absolutely crazy that we’ve made it that far – both Laura and I were not even sure if we could make it that for cos there has been so many steps in between but here we are one day to go. So for this day we are making our way toward Auckland and we are gonna be stopping at what is probably the best pitstop between the Kauri Coast to Auckland and it’s called the Kauri Museum.

Alright guys it’s a very grim day today it is our second to last day on the road. Laura and I are a bit sad that this is almost over but we’re pretty excited cos we have quite a lot planned for the last two days.

So guys have seen recently that we’ve been visiting some Karui forests like the Waipoua Forest and the Trounson Kauri Park only last night and Kauri are the largest types of trees in New Zealand and they were once highly sought after because they are a super durable wood used for building we learn all about that in the kauri museum. There was a whole industry surrounding it and that really shaped the whole history of the area.

And today in the kauri museum we are gonna be doing a scavenger hunt.

So what we’re gonna do it’s not gonna be straight forward it’s gonna be a magical tour it’s gonna be zip and throw.

The way that we’re gonna be going through the museum today is with a scavenger hunt – we basically have a long list of questions we need to go through the museum to get the answers to. It goes through a wide range of subjects which we need to go through the museum to explore.

The name is Trevor!

From having to read a few information signs and looking closely at the displays it’s a great way to see a lot of the museum rather than just walking around.

The next place that we are going to is the Kauri Gum room the Kauri gum were actually a very prized possession in New Zealand back in the day – they were even used as currency.

So a really good pastime back in the day was to polish your gum. Yes, I know that sounds really silly but if you were to polish your gum you would be able to get off all the impurities and show how pure that gum piece was.

I think she’s the most popular mannequin and not cos she’s naked.

Look at her toes!

I think she’s real! She’s a real person.

No the bath is was too still for that.

No she’s a real person. Look at her she’s moving. She’s a real person.

That is not a real person.

I can guarantee she’s a real person.

Can you pick that up on that camera?

I’m telling you she’s a real person.

Yep, so turns out that I was right and the mannequin is actually a real lady and we’ll see her later today.

The Kauri Museum is seriously huge. One rooms leads to another leads to another and there are rooms that are about the size of a warehouse which fits a timber mill in. There’s so much to unpack here.

It’s not all about kauri in the Kauri Museum, it also tells the story of the lives of the early settlers that were around during the kauri industry days and also tells stories of other industries that were popular in New Zealand around the time. There’s lots of static displays with some really lifelike mannequins as you saw earlier and then there’s this huge timber mill section with some actual working machinery.

The Kauri Museum is really where everything that we’ve seen or learned on the Kauri Coast in the Northland region of New Zealand comes together and all the stories are told right here. We’ve seen some really amazing kauri trees where we have been awed by the sheer size of them and just seeing how these early settlers used to saw them up and take days to get through just one log is just incredible. We learn so many different sides of this kauri history within this museum.

He is polishing what I hope is gum.

Another fun fact about the Kauri Museum is all the mannequins which are on display across the entire museum have been designed from faces of the volunteers of the museum – they all look super realistic and very human like. It’s quite amazing.

The next question is: who is in a lot of pain?

It’s only when we arrive inside the kauri mansion inside the museum that we realise that kauri gum is an actual currency.

We’ve got two pieces of gum to pay the man. There you go.

[piano music]

Yes, back in the day this was you entertainment and it feels like we are in a Western saloon but yes, that is basically what people were actually spending their evening listening to.

And finally at the end of the scavenger hunt we find our prize it was really well hidden in the Museum and a really fun adventure.

Believe it or not, there are more things to see at the Kauri Museum so we go next door to a place called the Totara House and this is actually a heritage kauri villa which was in the same family for 117 years.

After taking a tour of Totara House and checking out all the vintage kauri furniture we are sitting down to one of the best early settler activities there is out there and that’s eating scones and drinking tea.

I’m taking one for the road for the final drive of New Zealand’s Biggest Gap Year as we make our way to Auckland.

Alright so we are now making our way back to Auckland. this is the end of our journey we have one more day tomorrow and what a day it’s gonna be. It is gonna be pretty crazy – we are not gonna spoil anything guys but it’s gonna be absolutely epic our last day. So yeah, don’t miss that out tomorrow is finale of New Zealand’s Biggest Gap Year – the last thing that we are gonna be doing. We have done activities every single day for a whole year, mind you some of them we decided were not activities – we had a few debates especially early on…

Some days where we did multiple activities.

Some days we did more than one, yeah, yeah, yeah…

Tomorrow is day 365 – this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for. We weren’t even sure we’d get this far but tomorrow is our final day on New Zealand’s Biggest Gap Year so join us then. You will not want to miss it!