Close to the charming port town, among beautiful forests and emerald valleys, is located the Maori Museum. That is the storage of one of New Zealand’s largest and best-preserved collections of traditional local artifacts. The age of some exhibits is about seven centuries. Despite that age, all the items are in perfect condition. Some halls show the collection of the colonial era.

The feature of the exposition is a replica of Varenui (assembly houses), made manually in compliance with all the traditions of the Maori and Tapu (a spiritual code). For the construction, the workers used only original materials previously being the parts of other assembly houses.

There you can also see wood carvings made in 1867. The tribes decorated almost everything with it: houses, boats, barns, weapons, sarcophagi. They also carved the statues of ancestors from wood. Usually, such a statue was installed in every village. They are also kept in the museum.

Water transport occupies a separate place. The main part of the collection is dedicated to Waku - the Maori war canoe. There you can see stone tools, weapons for hunting, jewelry, tableware, toys, hairbrushes, embroidery, weaving, and other items. Everything tells about the ancient times, before the Europeans came to the island, changing the world of the aborigines and the look of these places.

The museum is located in the old Okines Bay cheese factory representing a historical value. The production turned to the gallery in 1977. Over the decades, the collection was enlarged. In the main courtyard, you can see the buildings of a colonial era, including an open blacksmith workshop of the beginning of the 20th century. In the museum, you can see diaries, clothes, household items and chests keeping the necessary things.