Settlers' Day

Settlers’ Day honors the heritage of the early settlers in the 1800s, most of whom came here from Australia and the British Isles. This settlement was inextricably tied to the Kauri forests. Kauri trees are huge and they grow very straight with a beautiful grain.

Beautiful Kauri wood panel

The wood is very hard. Add to that, they are self-pruning, meaning branches above a certain elevation simply cast themselves off, so there are no branches to interfere with harvesting. As you can imagine, this wood was highly in demand and the entire economy developed around it. The history of the early white settlers revolves around the heritage of this Kauri economy.  

The main historical museum here is therefore called the Kauri Museum, and admission is free only on Settlers’ Day each year. We packed a picnic and went with friends (another senior missionary couple), driving well out in the country to the museum. It took all day to wander through and even then there were whole sections we didn’t even slow down to see as we passed.



Antique Cars were part of the festival - parked right in with everyone else.

The Kauri Museum is privately owned by descendants of the early settlers in that part of the country and on Settlers’ Day only there are volunteer docents who lecture and demonstrate the old pioneer ways.

Kids had important chores

Teaching a new generation

Two-man saw: Harder than it looks

Wax mannequins in the dioramas were each modeled on a specific descendant living at the time the diorama was created. Just for fun, there were also live actors inside the dioramas that day only.  All the volunteers were in costume, like this girl we posed with. Her hat was a family heirloom, once belonging to her great grandmother over a century ago. 

Jan and DeLora with volunteer. Photo by Wayne Brower

Out in the bush, the workers lived in huts like this one, assembled in a few hours. They kept out the rain and not much else. What hard lives these people had!

Workman's bush hut

Can you imagine cutting logs like this with a two-man saw?

Bob with a Kauri log

But the axemen probably had the most strenuous work of all—18 hours a day, 7 days a week like everyone else. Today there axemen’s clubs.

Puhoi Axemen's Uniform

The Settlers’ Day celebration included an all-day chopping competition for a cash purse. Chopping is both skill and science, and the competitors carefully marked their chopping plan on the blocks with chalk before the clock started.

Marking the block

For each round he wins, an axeman is handicapped 3 seconds in his starting time behind the other competitors.

Axemen Compete

Each race to cut through the block goes fast, not more than 20 seconds. Didn't their joints wear out at an early age from all the shock?

A second important industry was Kauri gum, and those who harvested it were called gumdiggers. Kauri gum is formed when the tree is injured and extrudes a resin to seal the wound. The resin eventually dries and hardens and is cast out of the tree as the branches are shed, so it's found on the ground or underground, not in the wood. At first it’s dry but tacky. (This is the stage at which pine resin is used as violin rosin.) When fully hardened it's called amber. Kauri gum is used commercially in high-quality varnishes and is also carved into jewelry or sculpture. It’s gorgeous when polished! There was an room completely full of Kauri gum nuggets and artifacts floor to ceiling. The entire room glowed golden! Unfortunately everything was in glass cases and we couldn’t get a photo without too much reflection from the glass. Fortunately, one of the lectures included some Kauri gum nuggets. Unfortunately even our nuggets reflect too much to photograph.

The only other souvenir we brought home was a tussie-mussie. 

Volunteers making tussie-mussies

Jan was delighted that her tussie-mussie lasted for a week at home in a pretty glass of water, despite being carried around in her hand all day.

Jan and her flowers

 Another of Jan’s favorite displays was a whole room full of antique woodworking tools. A little ominous for her to contemplate that as a child she had played with many just like them in her granddad’s shop! The docent here was particularly avid and told us his best tales about finding and restoring some of the beautiful old tools. Nowadays he has someone watching out at the local “tip” (dump) and prowls e-Bay for parts. What a delight it always is to listen to people talk passionately and knowledgeably about something they love!

Jan definitely remembers this type of beautiful old wood plane

She never had enough strength to work a brace and bit like these!

This machine had a fascinating history. The old brickworks burned and were abandoned. A hundred years later someone came across a great lump of rust out in the bush and said, “This is old; we should take it to the museum." The curators had no idea what it was, but after an immense amount of cleaning and restoring, discovered it was an old clay tile press. To everyone’s astonishment, the original embossing plate was still in place at the top of the press. The curators estimated it was probably already a hundred years old when first brought to New Zealand as used, bargain equipment. The docent placed a lump of clay on the bottom plate and asked a young boy about 10 to pull that long lever--the one Bob stands near in this photo--and press the clay into a tile. The boy had to use both hands and all his weight, finally jumping up and down on the lever to get it all the way to the ground. Again, someone worked at this job 18 hours a day all the year round.

Ancient clay tile press

We planned to have our picnic under the trees beside the gravel road that ran beside the churchyard (cemetery). No scene could be more quintessentially New Zealand. But it was raining—also quintessentially New Zealand—so we just ate in the car.

Intended picnic area

On the way home we passed some Oreo Cows. We’d seen them before but never in a good situation to photograph.  We thought someone was joking with us when we were first told, but yes, they’re really called Oreo Cows! The true name of the breed is Belted Galloway. They're sometimes called police-car cows in America and the breeders call them "belties". We see them often here so were surprised to learn they're very rare, a "watched" breed, meaning the population is low enough to be monitored so they don't drop onto an endangered list. They're rare enough to reportedly sometimes be purchased in the U.S. as ornamental because of their unusual appearance.

Oreo Cows