Goodbye to a part of Katikati's history

It's all going under the hammer - the hundreds of bottles, antiques, and artifacts at Katikati Heritage Museum will be sold as owners Ken and Nancy Merriman begin their 'bucket list'. Elaine Fisher finds out more.
"We've had the most wonderful 11 years of early retirement at the museum which has more than fulfilled our expectations," Nancy says.
"We've met amazing people and had unique experiences but now it's time to do something for us. We want to enjoy the second phase of our retirement years."
For the past two years the couple have been trying to sell the museum on the corner of Wharawhara Road and State Highway 2.
"There has been some interest in the museum but we have not found any one who wants to devote their early retirement to the museum like we have."
Selling the exhibits, so many they will be auctioned on three separate days between April and June, followed by the land and buildings, is not what the couple want.
"I think it is a real shame that Katikati and in fact the wider Tauranga district is to lose its only museum. Our hope was always that someone would buy the museum and café and continue to run it as the popular attraction it is," Nancy said.
The biggest disappointment of the past 11 years for Ken and Nancy has been that locals haven't valued their own museum.
"I would estimate that less than 20 per cent of locals have visited the museum.
"The majority of visitors are from the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel and Waikato with a significant number of overseas visitors, plus organised school trips."
Overseas visitors often say the museum is a highlight of their time in New Zealand. "They love being able to hold and interact with items they've only ever seen on the Antiques Roadshow."
Those visitors are also enthralled and entertained by Ken and Nancy's unique and very personal guided tours, which draw on their own long association with the town.
The museum and its interactive programmes has become an important part of the curriculum for schools from as far away as Rotorua and Waikato.
It was the late Eleanor Meads who designed the programme which gives children a taste of school and life in the early 1900s, even to dressing in the style of the day. Dianne Connelly-Cook later ran the programme and today's school "teacher" is Dorothy Warbrooke.
"One of the important lessons the programmes teaches is that this country was not built by pushing keys on a computer, but by hard work and ingenuity," Nancy said.
The museum also tells the story of Katikati, the world's only planned Ulster Irish settlement, from its first Maori settlers to the arrival in the late 1800s of Irish immigrants lead by George Vesey Stewart, through to the growth of the timber and dairy industries to kiwifruit and avocado, all based on a collection established by the late Dick and Marg Goodwin of Ongare Point.
It was to protect that collection that the Merrimans bought the contents of their museum when Dick and Marg died within days of each other after a car crash in 1995.
The Goodwins had spent years excavating and collecting bottles, crockery and other artifacts from throughout the district.
The Merrimens bought the Wharawhara Rd property and had a purpose-built "barn" constructed. Don Wallis of Katikati took charge of the overall design of the museum layout, displaying the Goodwin bottles from a hanging "pathway" leading visitors through the museum.
Members of the Katikati Women's Institute and many other volunteers helped set out the exhibits and in 2000 Ken and Nancy began guided, hour-long tours.
Eleven years on they haven't lost their enthusiasm for the Katikati story - just the energy to keep telling it.
"We planned the museum as something to do in the early years of our retirement, but now we want to be able to do the things we've always hoped to - to tick things off our bucket list," said Nancy.
Ken said he wants to travel to Alaska, Norfolk Island, perhaps cruise around Australia and to enjoy the quiet life in a retirement village in Bethlehem.