I'm off on an adventure!: Kauri Museum

My host in Raglan had recommended that I visit the Kauri Museum, but with another long day of driving (with a stop in Auckland to address an issue with my rental car), I wasn't planning on making a detour - that is, until there was an accident on the highway around the same time that I came to the turnoff for the museum, and since I was delayed anyway, why not? I'm very glad I did, as the museum was fabulous.

Kauri are a massive native New Zealand tree that are quite long lived and grow to immense size. Kauri wood is renowned for its beauty, and the gum from Kauri trees is similar to amber in consistency and color (I don't have any pictures of the Kauri gum, but it is lovely if you want to look it up).

There wasn't a way to get the entire plank in shot, but here's an idea of how big Kauri can get and how beautiful it can be - even after having been buried in a swamp for a few millennia.

If you can't read the captions, this particular Kauri started as a seedling in the year 1100. It was cut down in 1960. I don't remember the exact dimensions, so I'll settle for a measurement of "much bigger than me."

There were quite a few exhibits detailing the evolution of the logging industry, culminating in this sawmill, which is complete with working parts. It reminded me of the High Desert Museum near where I lived in Oregon. In the background, there's a two-story replica of an early 20th century boarding house, as it would have looked during the height of the Kauri trade.

This boardroom table is carved from a single slab. It is 15 feet (4.57 meters) long, and it is 4 feet 6 inches (1.37 meters) on one end, widening to 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 meters) at the other. It weighs more than one ton and has a steel supporting frame.

There were a great deal of excellent examples of furniture built from Kauri wood, the first picture is of one that was commissioned for a hotel in 1898, and later spent some time at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel (where I had been the previous day) before coming to the museum.

This shoe is carved from a single piece of wood.

The gift shop also had an impressive array of local artisans' work, which made me the tiniest bit homesick to think of my Dad and the wonderful wood turning he does.

The museum has some gorgeous pieces and great educational displays, but my hands down favorite part was the mannequins that are scattered throughout the buildings in various poses or in dioramas. Every single mannequin in the museum is modeled on an actual person, descendants of the original settlers of the town. This fabulously creepy hallway o' dioramas got even better when I learned this - though I do think that this is a cool and unique way to celebrate one's heritage.