New bread and old tractors.

Says it all!

Day 3 and we were off to Manaia the home of Yarrows Bakery. This family owned business is now run by the third generation. The shop was certainly popular as we joined the queue for some very cheap bread, savouries, pasties and lots of other lovely baking.

Yarrows family bakery, Manaia. The old BNZ bank building to the right.

The prices were amazing with Xmas mince pies $2.50 for a dozen, exotic bread for $2 a loaf and very cheap mix and match biscuits and pasties.

Waiting for a sticky bun.

This area of Taranaki used to be considered the granary of the South Pacific but improvement in growing and harvesting saw this all change just before WW I and dairy farming took over.

Mt Egmont (or as it is now known as Mt Taranaki).

After lunch we headed out to the Tawhiti Museum and the Traders and Whalers display.The latter has been 5 years in the planning and production and is a credit to the designers and builders. Covering the history of the Taranaki coast between 1820 and 1840. Using very realistic life size diorama’s it covers the interaction between the local Maori tribes and early seafarers and whalers.

Tawhiti Museum. Blacksmiths corner.

This trading caused quite a lot of problems among Maori tribes when some tribes obtained guns and started to attack tribes who were unable to protect themselves. Eventually this imbalance was corrected with traders supplying all the tribes and European soldiers being bought in as peace keepers and rounding up the trouble makers and shipping them out of the area.

Tawhiti Museum. The mining collection.

We last visited the Tawhiti Museum about 15 years ago so it was interesting to see what changes had taken place. Basically being a museum of agriculture it was interesting to see the improvement in tractors and machinery over the years.

Tawhiti museum military vehicle collection. Two Chevrolet puddle jumpers.Dairy farmers British Bedford circa 1935.1908 Burrell 8HP traction engine. Tractors and chain saws.Farming history.

It was amazing to see what devices had been developed by the farmers to improve their lot. One such machine was a milking machine which was patented and sold world wide.