Fielding

After spending a night in Marton, we decided we would do a side trip to Fielding to visit the Pioneer’s Museum. We had heard some good reviews about this museum and wanted to see it for ourselves.

We had a leisurely start as usual and headed off in the rain towards Fielding. We had no trouble finding our way to the Museum and were most impressed with the personal greeting we got. We were introduced to the Museum by an elderly gentleman (presumably a volunteer) who gave us a synopsis of the various sections of the Museum as well as some information about how the Museum came into existence.

We started by watching a short video on the museum and then walked our way through the impressive displays. The first displays tried to demonstrate what life would have been like for the first settlers in the area. Fielding was named after a Captain Fielding who was sent over to purchase land for new settlers. The settlers (1700 of them came over a period of 5 years) were promised a cabin and some land when they got here, but they arrived before any cabins had been completed, so they had to live in tents throughout the winter – pretty tough life.

There was a huge collection of horse drawn vehicles.

My God daughter Nicky, is a policewoman. Here is one of the first Police cars (carts) in New Zealand.

There were also some other vehicles that were famous such as the model T Ford.

and an Indian motorcycle

At the back part of the museum is a John Deere collection of tractors (and some other John Deere vehicles). This collection was gifted to the museum from a deceased estate, and the money sitting on the floor here is mind blowing.

 

We were on our way out of the museum when we found that they had some “way out toilets”! Bruce and I both went but could not see what made them “way out”.

The Museum did not disappoint and we were impressed with the displays and the amount of information given about Fielding in its early days, and transport in general.

After a very late lunch we left Fielding and headed to Whanganui where we planned to spend the next 3 days with Judy’s friend Jenny.