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Pleasure seekers on Kai Iwi Lake seen from above. Photograph / Toby Corridor on Unsplash
How you can spend an easy-going weekend or longer in Dargaville, the vacation spot that’s filled with surprises, writes Helen Van Berkel
Underdogs have a smooth spot in our hearts and as a holiday destination, Dargaville undoubtedly deserves the monicker.
However underdogs have their endearing factors and this gateway city to the Kai Iwi lakes is nicely price a pause for an hour – or per week – or two.
The closure of State Freeway 1 via the Brynderwyns this month is rerouting northbound site visitors to the coasts, so I took the western possibility and stopped awhile within the little city of hidden treats.
Joseph Dargaville was among the many fortune-seekers lured to the banks of the fast-flowing Wairoa River by the pale timber and golden resin of the mighty kauri that blanketed the area. The businessman and politician purchased land for his eponymous settlement in 1872, creating it into a serious buying and selling hub. Historical past buffs would possibly like to go to the city’s Trinity Church, the place a stained glass window was put in in his reminiscence in 1910.
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We’re launched to the tales of the gumfields at Matakohe’s Kauri Museum about half an hour’s drive out of Dargaville for northbound drivers. Its masterfully curated shows use pictures and punctiliously preserved relics to inform of the arduous labours in attempting situations of these early days. I believe it’s one in all New Zealand’s greatest museums, with one thing new to see on each go to.
Kauri is a present that continues to present to Dargaville. The sadly few remaining dwelling timber are actually protected however monolithic trunks of astonishing girth emerge now from swampland the place they’ve lain undisturbed for the reason that finish of the final ice age.
Name in at The Woodturners Kauri Gallery and Working Studio to see new creations emerge out of the traditional timber beneath the palms of grasp woodturner Rick Taylor.
![Underdogs have a soft spot in our hearts and as a holiday destination Dargaville definitely deserves the monicker. Photo / Kaipara District Council](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/BJTCXO34XZH2POAJQJIWN7PFTQ.jpg?auth=228da533ce592ece6deeffb2be62268fe03c1ee2c5c82f538f13a18a886f9f8f&width=16&height=12&quality=70&smart=true)
I all the time wish to cease within the village and stroll its once-bustling streets and wander the riverside path alongside the Wairoa River. Dargaville’s heyday got here and went shortly, its burst of profitable business leaving the city with an astonishing 23 heritage-listed buildings. The Industrial, on the banks of the river, was constructed in 1895. The previous publish workplace and clocktower, on the nook of Normanby St and Hokianga Rd, was in-built 1914 within the Imperial-Baroque model. Apparently, it was the primary publish workplace in New Zealand to obtain home airmail, courtesy of a seaplane from Auckland touchdown on the Wairoa.
On the hill, the Dargaville Museum can also be price a go to. It has a reproduction kauri gum diggers village – little shanties considerably creepily inhabited with dressed dummies – and the mast from the Rainbow Warrior, the bombed hull scuttled off the coast of Northland as a diving attraction. The museum has an intensive and well-curated report of Dargaville and its environs. It’s world-renowned for its assortment of artefacts from the shipwrecks that got here to grief on the Kaipara Harbour bar south of right here – of which there have been many. Some say greater than 100 ships could have gone down on the treacherous coast and it’s potential to this present day to seek out wood ruins throughout a stroll on the coast.
![Matakohe’s Kauri Museum is about half an hour’s drive out of Dargaville. Photo / Michael Cunningham](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/AMT644TIP5D5BPHTZYOEGEOIJA.jpg?auth=50b7fe54b4ab97b2f2f340bae34b616a45cbd90007e74c7ef5842bce0fcdc7d1&width=16&height=12&quality=70&smart=true)
The museum additionally boasts an impressive view over the river and city to the distant slopes, remnants of lengthy inactive volcanoes.
The final time I used to be in Dargaville, I camped on the Kai Iwi Lakes, about 20 minutes out of city. The dazzling sandy white banks and sapphire blue waters are extra tropical island than three hours north of Auckland so are common with citysiders who include their sailboats, kayaks – even dragon boats – and tents for a weekend of leisure and water frivolity.
![The dazzling sandy white banks and sapphire blue waters of Kai Iwi Lakes. Photo / Getty Images](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/LV67N2SI6BEQJHR5TARPUBVRIQ.jpg?auth=62ed945ab8891d2aca0f8149e3dbdd6c59e987af8f527a9b0a4f095b2abbe356&width=16&height=12&quality=70&smart=true)
Removed from town glow, the evening sky was a sight to see because the multitude of stars emerged out of the blackness and the glowing waters competed with the glowing heavens.
For one thing slightly totally different, trip slightly rail cart to Tangowahine, a two-and-a-half-hour journey that follows historic tracks taking in rural views to the north of the city. It clatters over bridges and thru little tunnels on a return journey that even kids can get pleasure from.
![Dragon boats on Kai Iwi Lakes near Dargaville.](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/EFJ4ZAFCIZFNDBNQA55ZJMYVGU.jpg?auth=22d84ea98e1400a821a0cee2f80e6d01d5b3b4ef57647f95c78a28557d501675&width=16&height=10&quality=70&smart=true)
Earlier than leaving Dargaville, I wish to double again to the tiny kauri chapel on the sting of the Kumara Field past the museum. The whimsical little constructing is a enjoyable assortment of kitsch that solely prices a $2 donation to get sidetracked at. Seemingly New Zealand’s smallest church, it’s a enjoyable little gem that I all the time should myself in a city filled with surprises.
![The tiny kauri chapel offers a fun collection of kitsch. Photo / Holly Claeys](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/GLNN4ZIYG5HPRCSAK2NPNN4HYU.jpg?auth=568d47c62da74baea5ae4c1c7ab8a9d227e9810c89bcc21c8acc9ec70d7455eb&width=16&height=22&quality=70&smart=true)
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