Hikurangi Historical Museum

21/05/2026

Earlier this week we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day. We took some of the volunteers from the Hikurangi Museum on an outing to thank them for all their help. We really enjoyed our day. We had a fascinating tour at the Waipu Scottish Migration Museum, followed by a delicious kai with fabulous views at the Oceanview Café, (located at the Waipu Golf Course). An unexpected bonus was when the chef recognised Whaea Ani - he used to be one of her students at Hikurangi School. We had a wonderful time and highly recommend both the Waipu Scottish Migration Museum and the Oceanview Café - make a day of it and visit them both! Thanks so much to everyone involved, especially our volunteers - both those present and those unable to make it. Many thanks also to the Lotteries COGS funding scheme for enabling us to acknowledge our volunteers.

22/04/2026

The first ANZAC day was observed in 1916. By 1920 it had become an official public holiday in "commemoration of the part taken by New Zealand troops in World War I, and in memory of those who gave their lives for the Empire". This ANZAC day we pay tribute to all who have served in military campaigns and peacekeeping operations - World War I and beyond. The Hikurangi Historical Museum will be open from 9.30am to 1pm on Saturday the 25th 2026. We invite you to visit the museum to pay tribute to the military personnel of Hikurangi and surrounding district, before or after the Hikurangi ANZAC Parade. You can look at their names, photographs, military artefacts, and write on a commemorative poppy.

Military identification tags (informally known as dog tags) were the focus of our April Bulletin text. The use of dog tags is worldwide and goes back centuries. Spartans tied name tags to their wrists and Roman soldiers wore lead discs around their necks. Chinese soldiers used wooden tags attached to their belt. They were also used in the US during the Civil War. Dog tags are small artefacts with a practical purpose, yet are symbols of pride and remembrance for veterans and whānau.

The Hikurangi Museum is honoured to have been donated two sets of dog tags for display in our military collection.
Frederick Vincent Stoddart COTTERILL WW1 25 1700
Henry Host NEWBY WW2 68196
Both of these men returned safely from war.

Issued to military personnel, dog tags provide essential information used to identify soldiers. We reached out to the National Army Museum for more information about their history and purpose in NZ. Curator Elizabeth Mildon kindly responded: “In early WWI, New Zealand Soldiers were issued with a single metal disc made of either zinc or aluminium. The details impressed on these discs included NZ, the soldier’s service number, their religion (CE for Church of England) and then their initials and surname. Later on compressed fibre board ones were used. These were worn in pairs. If the soldier was killed and his body recovered, one tag would stay with the body and the other would be kept for administration purposes and so the next of kin could be notified. These tags were impressed with the same details as the metal ones plus the unit the soldier served with such as NZFA for New Zealand Field Artillery. One tag was octagonal in shape and was usually green in colour. The second tag was circular and red in colour. During WWII, the same green and red fibre board tags were used. The details on the tags now also included the soldier’s blood type but did not include the unit details.”

If you want to find out more about ANZAC day and why it is observed, this article is a good introduction: https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/people/identity/explainer-why-do-we-commemorate-anzac-day

If you cannot make it to the Hikurangi Museum on ANZAC day, our usual opening hours/ days are: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 10am to 11.30am or by appointment.
Email: [email protected]
Website: hikurangimuseum.org.nz

13/04/2026

Come with us on a tour through the Hikurangi Museum!

30/03/2026

Ngā mihi nui to everyone who visited the Hikurangi Museum at our Open Day. We had a steady stream of visitors throughout the day, great to see returning faces and new! A special thanks to our local councillors - both past and present; colleagues from Kiwi North Heritage Park; and local business owners who turned up to tautoko the museum. Hikurangi Councillor Stephen Martin said a few words at the morning tea which we really appreciated considering his farm was impacted by the recent storms and he had lots of mahi he could be doing elsewhere. Thanks heaps Stephen! Arts and crafts stations kept all ages busy with needle felting, frottage, and geli plate printing. There were opportunities to look at artefacts and talk to our museum volunteers about local history. Many thanks to Mark and our awesome neighbours- the Hikurangi Volunteer Fire Brigade for the loan of tables, chairs, gazebo, and the use of their space for morning tea; To our funders- WDC and Lotteries COGS and Community Grants- your belief in what we do and the support of our wee community museum is so very much appreciated. Finally- to our amazing team of dedicated volunteers- local history is preserved and presented because of all that you do. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou. If you wish to get involved in the Hikurangi Museum by helping out in some way, either by visiting, making a donation, volunteering, or becoming a member- please email us: [email protected]. More information can be found on our website-https://hikurangimuseum.org.nz

27/03/2026

Join us tomorrow at the Hikurangi Museum for our Open Day - Saturday the 28th of March - 9.30am to 3pm. Morning tea will be held next door at the Hikurangi Fire Station 10.30am to 11.30am. Many thanks to the Hikurangi Volunteer Fire Brigade for the use of their space and the important mahi they do in our community keeping people safe.

27/03/2026

Just a reminder about this awesome opportunity to learn about seed saving, which will be happening up at Wholey Health (Village Market)in Whakapara at 3.30pm tomorrow (Saturday 28th of March). No need to RSVP- just turn up - but a koha for Soozee would be much appreciated. BTW You may have seen photos of the road condition at whakapara following the flooding, apparently the road has been scraped and SH1 is reopen again.

22/03/2026

Lots of good things happening next weekend. Here is a great opportunity for people to learn how to save seeds - an important skill for gardeners to have, especially during difficult financial times. Join Soozee to learn all about it, up at Wholey Health in Whakapara. (Sat 28th March 3.30-5.30pm). Koha welcome.

02/02/2026

The Hikurangi Museum is now open again for the public to visit. Nau mai, haere mai koutou! We are operating with summer opening hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 10-11.30 and Saturdays 10- 1pm. Also open by appointment.
Today a small group of volunteers gathered for a blessing of our displays in the old Council Building at the Hikurangi Museum. Ngā mihi nui for leading us through this important process Whaea Ani. We have had a very busy and productive month cleaning, sorting, cataloguing and rearranging artefacts so the various histories of Hikurangi are represented more clearly. It's just a start - it took us a solid month and hundreds of collective hours just to work through the Council Building - which is one of the smaller buildings on the museum site. This is why our doors were closed throughout the month of January so we could get on with this important mahi. There is still lots more to do, but what a great start. Ngā mihi nui hoki to all our hardworking volunteers. Not all of you could make it today, but we know you were there in spirit. Many thanks also to the Children's Lighthouse next door for the use of your venue so we could whakanoa through the sharing of kai after the blessing. It has been inspiring to work together on this project. Watch this space for photos of the process, plus before and after photos - in the meantime, start planning your visit. We would love to show you what we have been up to!

22/01/2026

We hope everyone is safe and dry after the weather bomb we just had. We have stayed busy with our collections management at the Hikurangi Museum - the museum is closed until the start of February 2026 so we can clean, catalogue and reorganise our displays. Although you cannot visit us in person at the moment, you can visit our fabulous new website and find some interesting information there, plus you can continue to contact us if you have any queries. We would like to do a shout out to Shrider Digital (https://www.shriderdigital.nz) for all their hard mahi on getting our website set up and for helping us understand how to manage it ourselves after it was built. Also, thank you to Lotteries and COGs for their funding which enabled the website to be built. We are really happy with it- watch this space as it grows and more information is uploaded: https://hikurangimuseum.org.nz

10/01/2026