The Kauri Museum is marking its 50th anniversary and the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Albertlander pioneers in Northland with the publication of a new book and an open Settlers Day.
Pioneering Life and the Kauri Tree, a colourful 150 page history, perpetual calendar and recipe book compiledby Sarah Charles, was previewed at a special 50th anniversary celebration at the Kauri Museum on Wednesday.
Local personality, 102- year-old Mavis Smith will cut the cake at the official book launch at the museum's Settlers Day on Saturday.
Featuring contemporary and archive photographs charting the history of the Otamatea area, Pioneering Life and the Kauri Tree covers aspects about local life during those years - including kauri and the timber industry, farming, home-making, family, childhood, Anzac Day, fishing, the church and transport.
It contains colour photographs and over 200 archive black and white photographs from the museum's special collection - many of them unpublished before, and over 50 recipes from the descendants of the early pioneers.
Together, with the museum's staff, those descendants and other local people made priceless contributions to the unique publication which, as well as being a historical record and a perpetual diary, makes an ideal gift and a memento of the world renowned museum.
The author, Sarah Charles lives in England. Every year she and her artist husband stay in Whangarei where they keep a launch.
Mrs Charles started to collect information and photographs about the district and the Kauri Museum earlier this year, and compiled the book on her return to England, a process which involved the exchange of many emails.
