Inglewood

We were very late leaving New Plymouth so our adventures today were just a short trip away to Inglewood – inland and to the east of Mt Taranaki.

At least I had heard there is a mountain there but we certainly couldn’t see it – the day continued to be very overcast with heavy showers. To make it more miserable, by the end of the day the temperatures had certainly dropped and it was feeling decidedly chilly.

The place of interest at Inglewood was the Fun Ho Toy Museum.

The first toys were made at this factory starting in 1935 and were originally made from lead. There was no awareness at that time about how toxic lead could be. It was ironic that the packets these toys came in advertised these models to have non-toxic paint! Once the dangers of lead was realised, the toys were cast from aluminium.

The Fun Ho Toy Factory at one stage made the model cars that were given away, or sold through Mobil petrol stations!

There are over 100 model toys on display of all sorts, from racing cars, to tractors, airplanes to trains. Also on display were the dies used to cast these toys.

There was also a train set mounted inside the body of an old Bedford van, as well as one travelling around the walls just beneath the ceiling.

The Fun Ho Toy Factory closed down in the 1980’s as it could no longer compete with the cheaper toys being brought in from overseas. Now the toys are a collector’s item and one little model toy can cost as much as $48.00.

By the time we left the Toy Museum it was after 4pm so we made our way to the Inglewood Club where we planned to stay the night. We were welcomed on the premises and there was no problem with parking as the club was definitely not busy. The site was on the heavy traffic bypass though so it was pretty noisy, but it really did not bother us.

We settled in for the night, ready for the new adventures tomorrow.