
The Summer Regatta – Mercury Bay Museum
Summer in Te Whanganui o Hei/Mercury Bay was an exciting time as it meant one of the biggest events of the year was being held – the New Year’s regatta.

Summer in Te Whanganui o Hei/Mercury Bay was an exciting time as it meant one of the biggest events of the year was being held – the New Year’s regatta.

The summer break as we know it became popular in Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1920s, but the Annual Holidays Act 1944 granted all workers two weeks’ annual leave.

The oldest commercial building in Whitianga has had a life that is worthy of a story all of its own. It was built in the heyday of kauri milling, moved location when no longer required and is still in use nearly 140 years later!

Ancient civilisations established museums to display and learn from antique objects and works of art. More recently, museums in Britain and Europe housed explorers’ and scholars’ private collections and often only opened to visitors by appointment.

The Whitianga Brass Band was formed in approximately 1909. They practised on Sunday mornings at the blacksmith shop or in the drill hall.

Summer in Te Whanganui o Hei/Mercury Bay was an exciting time as it meant one of the biggest events of the year was being held – the New Year’s regatta.

The summer break as we know it became popular in Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1920s, but the Annual Holidays Act 1944 granted all workers two weeks’ annual leave.

The oldest commercial building in Whitianga has had a life that is worthy of a story all of its own. It was built in the heyday of kauri milling, moved location when no longer required and is still in use nearly 140 years later!

Ancient civilisations established museums to display and learn from antique objects and works of art. More recently, museums in Britain and Europe housed explorers’ and scholars’ private collections and often only opened to visitors by appointment.

The Whitianga Brass Band was formed in approximately 1909. They practised on Sunday mornings at the blacksmith shop or in the drill hall.