23/09/2026
Where could an Aucklander go for a day trip in the 1880s? Thames!
As the gold-rush boom faded, Thames reinvented itself as an early heritage tourism destination. Visitors from Auckland would travel by steamer for the day to explore a landscape of open mine shafts, clattering stamper batteries, and bustling streets. It was industrial curiosity - the Victorian equivalent of sightseeing.
To cater for this new tourist market, local traders imported fine commemorative souvenir china, custom-made with delicate gold-gilt edges and hand-transferred local views. Choosing ware with heavy gilt or gold rims was deliberate - it let tourists quite literally take a piece of ‘Thames Gold’ home with them.
Favourite scenes included local landmarks like the Thames Government Buildings, the Victoria Park Band Rotunda, and working mines like the Waiotahi Gold Mine. Today these pieces are highly fashionable and sought-after collectibles. The Thames Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Kauaeranga holds an extensive, beautifully preserved collection. Thanks to Mrs F.McAinch of Whangerei who donated her collection in 1982, The Thames School of Mines have some too!
Our favourite piece features the Victoria Park Band Rotunda. Look closely and you can see the early plantings of pōhutukawa - our treasured New Zealand Christmas Tree - which are now, over 100 years on, well-established, mature and enormous specimens. Quite different to the illustration on the china!
To an archaeologist, a broken saucer can be as precious as a gold nugget. Gold mines and public buildings tell one story, but everyday things people used, broke, and threw away tell another - about leisure, pride, shopping, and global trade.
Most of this souvenir china was made half a world away and shipped to Thames. Most will have been then discarded into backyard rubbish pits once chipped or cracked. When we excavate those fragments today, or find complete pieces they give us a snapshot of Victorian tourism: what visitors valued, what locals wanted to show off, and how Thames wanted to be seen.
Thames marked the birthday of King Edward VII by opening both the Victoria Reserve and Coronation Band Rotunda on November 10, 1902. This place is also Wai-o-Tapu for the people of Ngati Maru. Whilst the land is reclaimed the land underlying and surrounding the park has deep ancestral Māori history associated with the Tarakonaiti Pā and the nearby Ūrupā. It was hoped that Victoria reserve would create a good impression to visitors arriving at the nearby Grahamstown Railway Station, which no longer exists. The building is now the Ngati Maru headquarters at the southern end of Queen Street.
How wonderful that we can walk to Victoria Park and see those same taonga, our treasured Pohutukawa trees still going strong in 2026. 🌳
🎓School of Mines Tour
💵Adults $10
🤸♀️Children FREE
⌚️Tour Times: 10.30am | 1.00pm | 2.30pm
💎Mineralogical Museum Entry $5 | Children Free
🛍️ Museum Shop FREE entry
📍101 Cochrane Street | Corner of Brown Street, Thames.
⏰ Open: Wed-Sat 10-2pm
