Ferrymead makes me think of a baby museum - maybe a toddler, maybe even a teenager, but definitely not fully mature. Many of the exhibits (particularly the aeronautical display) are still unfinished, but it's obviously a labour of love for many people who are pulling together to save what bits of New Zealand's past they can get their hands on. It is the meeting place for numerous clubs and enthusiast groups, who restore aeroplanes, build model train sets, work a printing press, restore engines, or otherwise contribute to what is a wonderfully eclectic heritage park. As well as the working steam train there is a working steam tram and an electric tram which ferry people from one end of the park to the other.
Here's the train we took (the route is extremely short and the journey only lasts a few minutes, but you can ride the train and trams as often as you like at no extra cost):
The working printing press was fun - they do lots of personalised posters and notecards for anybody who wants to buy them, and have a selection of other printed bits and pieces too. We watched at a man in overalls ran batches of cards through a metal press which cut circular holes in one end of each card. No idea what they were for, but it all seemed very authentic and olde-worlde with the smell of paper and the clunk of machinery. Not a computer in sight, of course.
The fire museum ("The Hall of Flame") was another favourite of mine. I was particular interested in the steam-powered fire engines and the old alarms dating back to the late 1800s.
There's a great telephone and telegraph museum in the post office, which has phones going back to 1881 and a working telephone exchange where you can play and make connections to other phones around the park. I didn't get near it because some father was playing with his kids there, but I might go back sometime and have another go.
There are lots of old settler style houses and shops arranged as if in a village, which is lovely to walk around. Most of the buildings have at least one room which you can walk into, although many other rooms are glassed off across the doorway so you can look but not touch.
All told, Ferrymead is well worth a visit and I would definitely recommend it to anybody who's at all interested in the past. There is enough to keep most people interested for a few hours at least, and I think I'll get good value from my "annual" pass ($30) which lets me visit as often as I want until the end of March 2011, and get half price tickets for up to two adults accompanying me as well. That's definitely a bargain!
