Northland: Whangarei Museum and Kiwi House

Since arriving in New Zealand a year ago, seeing a real live Kiwi was high on the list on priorities, but we hadn't had the opportunity until recently.

Oh wait... yes we see Kiwi's every day, I mean the bird ;)

We found the Kiwi house and Museum and decided to drop on in. It's not expensive, and kind of small, but very well done. The Kiwi house has a few Kiwi's in a nocturnal environment with low lighting and a bush style setting.

There are places for the Kiwi's to go for safety, but this sadly also keeps them out of our view. While we were there one decided they were hungry, so ran out of the nest, across the 'landscape' and to the feeding trough. I was surprised by how fast they move, and by the colour of it's beak - such a bright yellow!... or at least it seemed it in the dim lighting.

We went around the rest of the buildings in the grounds, seeing the display of the other birds, the engines, the mini train wasn't running that day - it was too wet, and then to the Museum. The Whangarei Museum is actually built inside an old airplane hanger (by the looks) and has a few well appointed small displays.

I was fascinated with the video of the Moari winter solstice, and loved the collection of 1900's+ paraphernalia. I saw old Cameras, typewrites, scales and a manual printing press from 1851 that still works today!

A real piece of nostalgia was the dining room they had set up, with the doilies on the arms and backs of the chairs, and the dining table laid out with the delicate China. It reminded me so much of my Great Aunt's house when I was growing up, so I had a lovely walk down a personal memory lane, as well as discovering history of this land.

It's not the biggest, nor does it have many displays, but for a piece of history not far North of Auckland, you just might enjoy a visit to Whangarei.