Museum visit

The weather over the past few weeks has been decidedly unpleasant - very wet and very windy and very constant!
Cabin fever sent us out on a 'avencha' and we wandered out with the view to visiting this museum which we have been threatening to do for ages.
The pioneers in New Zealand have, it appears, faced the same struggles which peoples all over the world have faced and have settled themselves, for the most part, as best they could and with all the knowledge which they brought with them from 'home'. The life-size models in most of the exhibits are really well done and we particularly enjoyed the humour which has been so skillfully incorporated into the museum without having any of the pioneering spirit disrespected in any way.


There are so many thoughts which come to mind when one considers why this fellow is looking so incredibly distraught and 'moedeloos' - we, of course, have our own opinions about that. After all, 'as jy rêrig so graag daardie fiets wil ry, dan moet jy maar die gevolge daarvan dra! ' and more to the point - 'as jy dom is, moet jy suffer'!









The chappie up on the wagon has the little guy's teddy bear, by the looks of things - and there is a tantrum going on which Mother is studiously ignoring while she pours herself and farmer Jack a cup of koffie kapitaal!

One of the 'founding mothers' of the Taranaki area spent her life here and although she never married, was right up there with the upliftment of genteel society as a whole and this 'outpost' specifically. As a result, on her passing, a large part of her house and it's contents have been incorporated into this part of the museum and set up (behind glass of course) pretty much exactly as they were in her home. We just so enjoyed the sense of humour which is evident in most of the exhibits - in this case, the child is ruining the train mechanism once and for all!

It was mentioned on the plaque for this exhibit that she was particularly fond of the 'parlour singing' that folks engaged in at the time and it was felt that any exhibit without these fellows would be incomplete. We have our own reasons for being amused by these gentlemen!

We wandered around the museum for a couple of hours and then took shelter in the coffee shop while the weather raged outside - rain and wind and hail!

Definitely worth the visit!

Dis al!