Our Living History Museum Trip

Our Living History Museum Trip…

We stepped back in time to experience the lives of the people who settled in H.B. over 100 years ago.  We found out how things were done in the past by role playing chores, games and pastimes, all in old style clothes from that time.  Life was hard work!!!

 Gaynor was our teacher for the afternoon.  Look at her big underwear over the chair.  They were big, baggy button-up bloomers with a frill. 

 Gaynor told us a little history of NZ.  Early settlers travelled from across the world on big ships to settle in NZ.  Many settlers came to clear the land and farm. 

 The land was cleared by hand.  Bushmen used simple tools to cut down the forests that covered the land.

They built simple houses out of whatever materials were available – some even out of river rocks, mud, flax and raupo leaves.   

 We dressed up in the clothes that the early settler children wore.

Girls learned to curtsy. 

 Boys learned to bow.  These were formal ways to greet people.

 Gaynor showed us how they made candles.  Here she is pouring melted bees wax into a candle mould.  The wick is threaded through and knotted at end to hold it in place while the candles set.

 Stilts were a popular pastime.

 Clothes were scrubbed on a wash board like this.

 Dripping washing was put through a wringer to get most of the water out.  Washing took all day.

 Knuckle bones has been a favourite game hundreds of years.

 Ironing was a laborious job of heating the irons on a stove.

 This is a bath tub.  Water would be heated on the stove if you were lucky.

 A hand operated sewing machine was a real luxury.

 Old scales for weighing things.

 We practised writing in the old fashioned handwriting style.

 Spinning Tops and Cup and Ball .

Quoits using a horse shoe.

 Sucking dirt off the floor with hand vacuum was exhausting.

 Everyone took turns to whisk the cream into butter.  People would often sing to help pass the time while working.  We sang:

Come butter come,

Come butter come,

Peter stands at the gate

Waiting for his butter cake,

Come butter come.

 Marbles.

 More wringing of the wet washing!

 Here is the candle Gaynor made.  It smelled of buttery honey.

Abby wound up the gramophone and Gaynor played a very old record.  The music was very old fashioned.

Here we are dancing to the music.

At the end of our visit we waited to taste the butter we’d made.  Gaynor made some fresh sandwiches.   The butter was very creamy. 

We all enjoyed our trip back in time and we learned a lot about how early settlers lived in NZ.  We are pretty glad to be living in 2014!!