3k’s or so outside of Matamata is the Firth Tower Museum.
Its an amazing collection of original buildings in the grounds of what used to be a farm for the Firth family in Auckland to feed the flour mill.  It later became the base for a well known Waikato family to farm.
The original farmhouse was built with the tower in the later 1800’s but the farmhouse burnt down in 1902 and was replaced  then by the current house. It was then owned by the McCaw family.
Don’t forget you can click on the images to enlarge them

Firth Tower Museum Historical man cave

The Coach

Original Tractor

Milking .. love the old radio

Each building had its own collection

Out with the washing

Love the stick with the fork

Where we parked for the night, that’s the back of the van with the arrow. From the top of the tower shot through the glass.

Madam checking out the Phone box

The House with Tower

The Schoolhouse, Post office and Church

Madam all dressed for the occasion

Firth Tower

Sunset

In each of the buildings there is a theme of history, Agriculture, Transport, Medical, local war involvement, and there is even two carriages with the History of the Kaimai tunnel as well.
The volunteers who staff it were all wearing historical gear to add to the feel of the place.  When  we visited, there was school trip of local primary school kids and they all got dressed up in historical clothing to add to the occasion.

For $10 you can stay the night with power or free parking without power. One of the nice things about being on the road is discovering new places to stay and how nice they can be and often it is the least expensive that are the nicest places to stay… this was one of those times.   A great way to spend the day and it really is a well setup museum.

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