A one-stop shop in a one-horse town, Waikawa's museum incorporates an information centre, acts as the reception for various local holiday rentals, and sells important stuff like newspapers and stamps. Its collection of historic artefacts is a classic of the NZ small-town-museum genre: rusty agricultural implements, taxidermy, spooky old photos and hand-annotated maps of the locality.
Waikawa Museum & Information Centre
Fiordland & Southland
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
Slope Point
7.22 MILES
South Island’s true southerly point lies not in Bluff, as many mistakenly believe, but at the end of a 20-minute trudge through a windswept cliff-side…
Nearby Fiordland & Southland attractions
1. Curioscape
3.05 MILES
Incorporated in this new centre is a pleasant cafe (lunch mains $10 to $22, dinner $26 to $38), visitor centre and the Gateway, a modern museum with a…
2. Petrified Forest
3.2 MILES
Marvel at the rare phenomenon of fossilised forest, extending south of Curio Bay. Preserved by silica in the ashy floodwaters that submerged these…
3. Slope Point
7.22 MILES
South Island’s true southerly point lies not in Bluff, as many mistakenly believe, but at the end of a 20-minute trudge through a windswept cliff-side…
4. McLean Falls
11.09 MILES
A lovely walk along wooden walkways and fern-fringed tracks brings you to the attractive McLean Falls, named for an early 20th-century settler renowned…
5. Cathedral Caves
11.64 MILES
Cutting back into cliffs right on the beach, the huge, arched Cathedral Caves were carved out of the limestone by 160 million years of waves. Named for…
6. Waipapā Lighthouse
13.86 MILES
Standing on a desolate but beautiful point surrounded by farmland, this 13.4m-high lighthouse was built after the SS Tararua disaster, an 1881 shipwreck…
7. Florence Hill Lookout
15.88 MILES
Three kilometres southwest of Papatowai, a short gravel road leads to sweeping Tautuku Bay, which can be viewed from on high at the Florence Hill Lookout…
8. Fortrose Cliffs
16.04 MILES
For those who appreciate stomach-flutteringly steep lookout points, the Fortrose Cliffs are a worthy photo-op on a drive between Invercargill and the…