Putāruru - Past and Present

or years we’ve driven past the New Zealand Timber Museum on the main road just south of Putāruru saying ‘we must stop one day’. ‘One day’ arrived, and we spent an absorbing couple of hours learning how the timber industry impacted New Zealand’s development. The museum is a fascinating and moving tribute to the hardworking bushmen of that time, an industry long gone and the men and beasts who worked within it. Sustainability wasn’t given much consideration in those days and there are now only remnants and pockets of native bush scattered throughout the country as a reminder of how things were before Europeans came, but