The kauri staircase making its ponderous way to a new location at Kauri Unearthed, in Awanui.
The kauri staircase making its ponderous way to a new location at Kauri Unearthed, in Awanui.
Few people would enjoy shifting furniture, but the Far North Roading crew and others who had the job of moving a giant staircase, carved from a single swamp kauri log, at Awanui really had their work cut out.
The staircase had long been one of the star attractions at whatused to be the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, and will be again when the revamped Kauri Unearthed opens about this time next year.
The entire complex is undergoing major renovations, the process so far involving the removal of the front section of the building, once home to the showroom and cafe, which are moving back into the original building, formerly the Ancient Kauri Kingdom workshop, and before that the Kaitaia Co-operative Dairy Co's milk powder store.
Alby Hall, who has been there for 26 years, said he helped make the staircase, which he reckoned weighed 16 tonnes. The log it had come from had originally weighed three times that, with Hall turning the material that was removed into 300 or 400 kauri bowls.
The pushing power to move the staircase on Monday was provided by a large digger, which slowly propelled it deeper into the building on steel rollers.
