This free-admission waterfront museum is open Wednesday to Sunday from October to April and specialises in old Kawhia photographs and newspapers, fossils from the Kawhia region, adzes and other artefacts, carvings of Tainui origin (some dating back to the 1920s) and it has a kauri display -- Kawhia was the most southern area where kauri trees grew naturally.
The Museum also has one of the historic racing whaleboats which still race each year on Kawhia Harbour. These five-oared craft are kauri-planked and are believed to be the only ones of their kind in the world. They were built in the 1880s specifically for racing, but to the design of traditional whaleboats of their day.
The Museum opened in 1990 and it is staffed by community volunteers. It also provides local and regional information about accommodation and activities, and it has a seven-days help line (07 8710161)...
kawhia@paradise.net.nz ..for tide times and other visitor information...
Outside opening hours the Museum opens for groups on request.
