The Kauri Museum is a highlight of any trip up through the Kauri Coast in Northland. It is well-signposted at the turn-off to Matakohe from State Highway 12, with parking and access on Church Road. The museum is also across the road from a historic church and post office, plus one of the few cafes on the route.
For European settlers, the kauri forests were a major resource. The ancient forests covered most of the north Waikato and the Coromandel to the Far North of Te Tai Tokerau. The lumber was used to build much of early Auckland, Royal Navy ship masts, and various consumer products. Kauri gum was also valuable for high-quality varnish and was widely exported. As the trees disappeared, there was extensive digging for buried gum troves.
The Kauri Museum does a superb job of telling this story. It includes a life-size exhibition showing the blow-by-blow process of turning a tree into lumber. There are also extensive collections of artefacts and photos of the various aspects of the kauri industry. The dioramas include incredibly detailed scenes of settler homes and business life, arguably the best examples in any NZ museum.
Inevitably, the museum also depicts the massive loss of the kauri forest. Today, these ancient trees, unique to the northern part of the North Island, occupy about 4% of the land they occupied in 1840. Consider also that the biggest trees today – Tāne Mahuta and Te Matua Ngahere – in Waipoua Forest are not the biggest recorded. There were several significantly larger trees that have fallen due to natural events over the last 200 years. The museum has a stunning graphic comparing the trunk dimensions of today’s giants to those of the past.
