Small Far North maritime museum has big story to tell

Warren and Mavis Suckling are inviting people to explore history at their Chucks Cove Maritime Experience museum in Cable Bay, in the Far North.

It’s a little museum with a big story to tell - New Zealand’s maritime history - but Cable Bay’s Chucks Cove Maritime Experience has enough on display to fill a container ship, and more.

Seven years ago, Northland couple Warren and Mavis Suckling gave up running their small maritime museum in Dargaville after 20 years to retire to Cable Bay, in Doubtless Bay in the Far North.

The couple gave their collection to the Kaipara Vintage Machinery Club in Dargaville, saying “avast!” as they headed to retirement.

A porthole reveals some of the displays in the Chucks Cove Maritime Experience. All photos / Mike Dinsdale

But when the club decided to focus solely on vintage machinery, they saw the opportunity to say ahoy to the collection again and open up a new museum.

So, they converted the large building they had been using as an Air B&B and recently reopened as the Chucks Cove Maritime Experience, with Warren’s stories and knowledge guaranteed to give any maritime buff a new and interesting experience.

He started his collection by initially buying the collection of noted Kaipara historian, conservationist and maritime collector Barry Searle.

Warren Suckling has a piece of the original cable that connected New Zealand to Australia and Canada that was laid in 1902 that gave Cable Bay its name.

He and Mavis then added to the collection, building it up to several thousand pieces, over the next 20 years out of the Kumara Box, on their kumara farm, and he said it was hard to let the collection go, but retirement was calling.

“It was very popular while we ran it and gave some great maritime experiences to adults and kids. It’s a great learning place for the kids and my stories help them to understand our maritime history and learn why it and our oceans, are so important,” Warren said.

“So, while it was sad to say goodbye to it, it was the right time, and now we have the right place for it, for us to take it back and give it the display it deserves. Most of the collection is from the Kaipara area, and sorry to the Kaipara for taking it up here, but it’s important that we keep it going to help educate youngsters and keep our maritime history intact.

The whale exhibition includes whale teeth and bones and plenty of information on the ocean’s largest mammals.

“I walk people through the museum, and my stories help bring the past to life.”

The museum has a wide range of maritime articles, from 26, expertly crafted model tall ships made by Alan Bycroft, including one of Captain Cook’s Endeavour, to shells, stuffed sea birds, whale teeth and bones, and a toheroa exhibition, including the shell of the largest toheroa ever found on Ripiro Beach.

And Warren has a tale or three to tell about all the items, after supplementing his own knowledge with that from Searle and fellow Kaipara conservationist and expert James Te Tuhi.

The new museum was formally opened last month and had so far had more than 200 people through the doors and the feedback had been excellent, he said.

The shells include the largest ever recorded toheroa taken from Ripiro Beach, in the Kaipara.

The interest had been so great that the couple have had Doubtless Bay locals dropping off items to display, including a piece of the original cable from 1902 that connected Cable Bay, and New Zealand, to Australia and Vancouver, Canada, that gave the bay it’s English name.

“Anybody can bring things in to display here. They can keep ownership, and we’ll display it for them, or they can donate it and we will look after it.”

The couple are keen to get more schools to bring their young charges to the museum to learn about the country’s extensive maritime history.

Anybody keen to visit will need to book in by ringing 0211091813.

A mollymawk presides over the seabird display.

This leopard seal skeleton is not something you see every day.

This display shows the layers of earth that make up Ripiro Beach over the millennia.

Warren Suckling looks at the fine details on The Foochow, one of the 26 model tall ships made by Alan Bycroft.

Warren and Mavis Suckling have opened the Chucks Cove Maritime Experience, in Doubtless Bay, with thousands of items on display.