Pioneer Village Kaikohe

15/09/2025

15/09/2025

🎉 Saddle up for a Wild West Adventure! 🐎
Join us at Pioneer Village Kaikohe for a fun-filled afternoon of heritage, entertainment, and family activities!
🕐 Demonstrations & Displays Schedule:
🔨 1:00 PM – Blacksmith in Action
⚙️ 1:30 PM – Stationary Engine Display
🚒 2:00 PM – Historic Fire Engine Demo
🐴 2:30 PM – Tackhouse & Saddlery Talk
💃 3:00 PM – Line Dancers Performance
⚙️ 3:30 PM – Stationary Engine Display
and maybe ....... couple of surprises
🎶 PLUS all-day fun for the whole family!
✨ Live Entertainment
🎈 Children’s Activity Zone
🧸 Free Play Area

Bring the whole whānau and enjoy a day of history, fun, and Wild West magic! 🤠
Early bird tickets available online :
https://events.humanitix.com/wild-wild-west-carnival-and-gala

or grab yours at the station house this week🥳

Gate sales are available on the day-
gate 1 eftpos available
gate 2 cash only

10/09/2025

Get in quick tickets are selling fast!!

05/09/2025

EARLY BIRD TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
Don’t miss out! Get your Wild WILD West tickets at a special discounted price:
🟡 Adults: $15
🟡 Youth (5–16): $10
🟡 Under 5s: FREE
💥 Live entertainment
💥 Historical displays
💥 Cowboy games, food alley & more
https://events.humanitix.com/wild-wild-west-carnival-and-gala

Limited early birds available !
🐴🔥

04/09/2025

We Need Local Legends!
Want to be part of something unforgettable? We’re looking for volunteers to help bring the Wild WILD West to life!
🎯 Event stewards
🎯 Activity helpers
🎯 Village display hosts
🎯 Costumed characters & more
If you’ve got skills, enthusiasm, or just love a good cowboy hat—we’d love to hear from you.

03/09/2025

The Harold Building – Where the Past Was Signed, Sealed, and Delivered

Step inside the Harold Building and you’ll find more than walls—you’ll find whispers of Kaikohe’s civic and medical history. Originally built around 1899–1900, this humble structure once served as a lawyer’s office and later as the town council chambers. Decisions were made here. Lives were documented. Futures were shaped.

Today, it houses a fascinating collection of early medical and dental equipment, including a foot-pedal-powered drill that makes you grateful for modern dentistry!
You’ll also spot baby weighing scales from the Plunket Society and pharmacy bottles that once lined the shelves of Kaikohe’s early chemists.

It’s a place where law met life, and where community care began. Come explore the Harold Building and discover the quiet power of paperwork, prescriptions, and public service.

02/09/2025

George Frederick Dickeson – Merchant of Momentum
Before Kaikohe had streets, it had stories—and George Frederick Dickeson was writing them in ink, gum, and grit. A gum buyer, wool broker, merchant, and auctioneer, Mr. Dickeson helped shape the commercial heartbeat of early Kaikohe.

He was one of the township’s original founders, bringing trade, structure, and opportunity to a growing community.
In 1893, the funeral of his wife drew over 250 mourners—150 Europeans and 100 Māori—an extraordinary show of unity and respect in the Bay of Islands.
His son Fran was the first European child born in Kaikohe.
Mr. Dickeson’s legacy isn’t just in business—it’s in the relationships, resilience, and reverence that helped build Kaikohe.

01/09/2025

CHECK OUT THE NEWSPAPER - WALLPAPER.

**Maioha Cottage Restoration – A Community Milestone!**

We’re thrilled to share that **Maioha Cottage** has undergone a major transformation! After more than a year of careful restoration, this beloved heritage treasure is nearly ready to reopen its doors to the Kaikohe community.

Thanks to the incredible support from **Lotteries** and the **Stout Trust**, we’ve been able to:
Remove the deteriorating chimney and repair water damage
Restore the exterior cladding and joinery with historical accuracy
Treat interior timbers for borer and moisture
Preserve the cottage’s unique character for future generations

While the collection inside has been safely packed away during the works, we’re excited to begin preparing the space for storytelling, education, and cultural connection once again.

This project has been a true labour of love, and we couldn’t have done it without our volunteers, contractors, and the wider Kaikohe whānau. Your pride and passion for our shared heritage keeps us going 💛

Stay tuned for reopening details and upcoming events—we can’t wait to welcome you back to Maioha Cottage!

31/08/2025

Memories of times gone by:
THE MAIOHA COTTAGE
The graceful old two-storey cottage now standing in the Pioneer Village was once the pride of Waimate North. Its age is uncertain, but family recollections and the dates of newspapers found during its restoration make it over 100 years old—probably built in 1875.
Originally, cooking was done on an open fire, but later a chimney and hearth were made from bricks dug from local clay. Eventually, a Dover stove was installed. The cottage is typical of a certain type of pioneer house of the period and certainly has a real pioneering history.
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MEMORIES OF OUR OLD COTTAGE By Mrs Ida Stewart
My sister, brother and I were delighted to learn that the old cottage in Waimate North—where we were born and brought up—might one day be restored and become part of a pioneer village museum in Kaikohe.
Once the pride of Waimate North, it was built by our grandparents, Hoani and Makere Maioha, and named Maunganui. We are three of the generations of children born there.
We were very close to the school—just across the creek and a paddock. I remember how sad we were one night watching our old school burn to the ground. When I first attended, Mr. May was the headmaster. He was a gifted man—teacher, dentist, doctor, and gardener. He bred Angora rabbits and grew beautiful begonias in containers on his verandah.
During the Depression, swagmen (or “swaggers”) would visit. One woman swagger walked most of the way from Napier after the great earthquake. She stayed a night with us before heading to Kerikeri for a housekeeping job. She gifted our mother half a yellow tree tomato (tamarillo). My father sowed its seeds—believed to be the first tamarillos grown in Waimate North.

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Moving the Cottage
The roof was removed from Maioha Cottage in preparation for its relocation from Waimate North to the Kaikohe Pioneer Village.
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Life in the Cottage
Though times were hard during the Depression, we had the best food—no supermarket bags back then. Our mother was a wonderful cook, making meals from home-grown produce. Māori families had large plantations of potatoes, kūmara, maize, pumpkins, and marrows. We had plenty of eggs from hens, ducks, and geese. One of our jobs was finding duck eggs in the creek. Another was shelling maize with a corn sheller. The corn crib was always full.
An orange tree still stands behind the cottage—over 100 years old and still fruiting. We had apple trees (Red Astrachan, Northern Spy), figs, peaches, plums, and grapes that climbed through the trees. We’d climb a ladder to pick them and sell them by the kerosene tinful.
Our father had a smokehouse where he cured bacon and ham, which were then hung from the rafters in the cottage.

25/08/2025

Don’t forget to book your Daffodil Day Breakfast! ☕️🥐🍳🥓