NEW ZEALAND HISTORY & HERITAGE ENTHUSIASTS WILL BE ENTERTAINED & INTERESTED …
12 heritage must-go places in New Zealand to visit (if you are short on time)
Discover Aotearoa New Zealand historical narrative with heritage sites ranging from a battlefield location to farming agriculture museum complexes and stunning pastoral homesteads. If you are short on time a whistle stop tour of these twelve attractions surely will get you changing your mind … stay a bit longer and absorb the wealth of unmissable historical places downunder.
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TOP SIGHTS IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND
- BUILDINGS – historic settler cob cottages, pastoral homesteads, heritage hotels, heritage commercial buildings and a bridge to nowhere
- Towns where Victorian / Edwardian ornate grandeur is part of the cityscape, Art Deco Napier escapulating an era of pre-war (WW II) glamour
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Check out the heritage towns of Mangonui, Rawene, Ahipara, Kawau Island, Puhoi, Coromandel town, Cambridge, Kihikihi, Athenree, Opotiki, Waipukurau, Te Kaha, Tolga Bay, Te Araroa, Inglewood, OngaOnga, Collingwood, Upper Moutere, Kumara, Ross, Waiuta, Blackball, Reefton, Hororata, Oxford, Glentunnel, Naseby, Ranfurly, St Bathans, Ophir, Lawrence, Balclutha, Milton, Arrowtown, Riverton.
- War, battles and heroic resistance – stories of defeat, of triumph and the massive colonial power of the British Empire conflict with local Maori in the New Zealand Land Wars, Russian 19thc scares and World War I and II.
- Pre-European Maori archeological sites where strategic positioning, access to food resources continues to be important today
- Wellington with its storehouse of governmental buildings beautifully detailed in the exquisite timber framed current Wellington University, Law School campus
- Gold rush prospectors in the 19th century left a trail in Otago of tailings, abandoned buildings, rusting equipment and memorabilia as fascinating evidence of the gold rush fever and there is the story of coal
- Museums in regional towns narrate the stories of locals with a multitude of photographs, material objects and vintage goods, check out our heritage trails for a guide what to do and see in an area
- Death, decay, cemeteries and the fascination with spooky and odd places. New Zealand deliveries in spades dark quiet places where the stories are still being uncovered.
- Contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand development is captured in farming ethnographic museums, collections and memorabilia and even a trout museum
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NEW ZEALAND REGIONAL GUIDES have a dedicated section to heritage & culture with descriptions of museums and galleries.
ART, CULTURE & GALLERIES
- New Zealand weekend markets are a surprising source for original artworks and artisan goodies with emerging artists using the venue as a means of market penetration.
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Want a book to read while on holiday check out Books, holidays, reading, where to go in New Zealand for a great book.
MAORI CULTURAL ATTRACTIONS
Tour Manea Footprints of Kupe @ManeaFootprints
Aotearoa New Zealand is home to a unique polynesian culture, the Maori. Vivid enactments narrate Maori ancestral links to the world class navigating skills of East Polynesia at Mana, Footsteps of Kupe, Hokianga. Whakatane has the tale of a beautiful meeting Mataatua Wharenui that spent 130 years traveling the world. Now it is safely back where it belongs with a fascinating story to tell.
Places and people capture Maori links; no better than Waitangi, Bay of Islands where the story of the founding document, Treaty of Waitangi has its origins. Discover the daily lives of Top 10 Mission Stations to Visit in Northland and the struggles against the whaling industry early missionaries faced.
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Look at the name of a place and find out what it means. The story starts with the name… for more information check out TOP SIGHTS – MAORI ATTRACTIONS, PLACES TO VISIT IN NEW ZEALAND.
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