Hikoi Day Two: Waitomo Museum
The Waitomo Caves Museum & Discovery Centre was a pleasant surprise with a treasure trove of photos, books, and archived records. The museum naturally has a lot of resources related to the caves with scientific and historic material as well as quite a collection of material related to early settler families. Bridget is the museum director and since covid has significantly reduce tourist numbers the staff at the museum/education centre/ information centre have been reduced significantly and there is little time or resource for her to put into the collections. Bridget seemed pleased to have a visitor interested in the archive and an excuse to “do some museum stuff” – her two associates at the centre had a good grasp on the archive and were able to give me some good leads for my research. Waitomo is an interesting case study in early settlement because of the caves and the hotel. Tours of the caves were offered informally by local Māori through the mid 19 th century long