Kauri Museum

Steve had the day off so we went to our first museum since we have been here. Steve does not tend to like museums but we were told by several people that this one was great. It tells the history of the Kauri tree. It is now an endangered tree so they can't cut it down but it used to be a very big business. You saw the trees in one of my earlier posts. They used it for furniture, paneling, dishes and even building houses. As you can see in the pictures below it is a beautiful wood. They had the most amazing detail on some of the furniture. It is truly one of the most beautiful woods I have seen. They also have the Kauri gum collection. It is the sap that has fossilized. There is very little of it left since there are so few Kauri trees. It is graded by how clear and how old it is. It is used for everything from jewelry to amazing carvings. It is hard to believe that what looks like a topaz stone is just sap fossilized. It really is beautiful. It was indeed a good museum and I was glad we visited. An yes on the way home we stopped by yet another beach to have a look.

Kauri furniture
Kauri gum with Rachel in the background

Yes we visited yet another beautiful beach