Yesterday we headed up towards New Plymouth
Our first destination was the Tawhiti Museum near Harewa.
The Tawhiti museum is pretty much made up of dioramas of varying scales – quite a few lifesized ones, and hundreds of little miniature ones, all very detailed.
Unfortunately, since I started taking photos absolutely everywhere, I didn’t really read any of the descriptions, so I suspect I’m going to have to go back there another time, and leave the camera behind.
It was really worth the trip though, and anyone visiting the Wanganui or Taranaki area should go have a look.
Next we carried on in the general direction of New Plymouth – and stopped at the Pioneer village just outside Stratford.
The pioneer village was a little disapointing, as whilst they had a whole lot of old stuff – it wasn’t really presented very well all the time.
For example, in the printer’s builing, there was just a jumble of printing type equipiment without really any description of what it was, when it was from or what it was used for.
The Hospital display was a little disturbing too – In one of the rooms there was a bucket with a couple of legs from dummies labled “Spare Parts”, and nearby was a stuffed cat with a label saying “Hospital cat – waiting for the last tonsil”.
There was a skeleton in a cupboard in another room, and a nurse lying on one of the beds smoking a cigarette….
I had the distinct feeling that it was the sort of place you didn’t want to be caught in after dark.
After the pioneer village, we headed in to Stratford for lunch – which was the best Fish & Chips I’ve had in years.
After lunch we decided we couldn’t be bothered carrying on to New Plymouth, and headed back home.
Photos here.
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