Reviews of Firth Tower Reserve and Museum. (Museum) in Matamata (Waikato).

Firth Tower Reserve and Museum

229 Reviews

158 Comments

Museum

266A Tower Road, Matamata 3471, New Zealand

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Description

Information of Firth Tower Reserve and Museum, Museum in Matamata (Waikato)

Here you can see the location, open hours, popular times, contact, photos and real reviews done by the users.

This place has good reviews, this means that they treat their customers well and you’ll feel great with their services, recommended 100%!

Map

Open hours of Firth Tower Reserve and Museum

Sunday

10am–4pm

Monday

9am–3pm

Tuesday

Closed

Wednesday

Closed

Thursday

9am–3pm

Friday

9am–3pm

Saturday

10am–4pm

Popular times

Sunday

9
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11
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13
14

Wednesday

9
10
11
12
13
14

Thursday

9
10
11
12
13
14

Friday

10
11
12
13
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15

Saturday

10
11
12
14
15

Reviews of Firth Tower Reserve and Museum

Absolutely worth your time and money to come and visit. My son and I went for a walk and ended up here. After meandering through the whole museum, went through an entrance that wasn't the main entrance, I thought that this is far too good to be free. As it turns out, it is. After emailing them the following ngnday, I quickly deposited the money for the entrance fee as it is definitely worth it (even worth more in my opinion). Gives great insight in to many aspects of the history of the area and my son (3) loved looking at everything and going up the tower to check out the view!

Awesome day out with the kids. Lovly picnic lunch.. highly recommend.

This is an interesting place to visit. It covers a period in New Zealand's history in the Waikato area. There is a great museum of farming machinery. An old school building with a lot of features about schooling back in the day. A beautiful refurbished church. The new homestead house (1902/3) alongside the tower. A display of life as it was, no electricity and what it became when household power came into being. A place well worth a visit.

Interesting piece of Matamata history, glad we stopped to have a look.

There is more than Hobbiton in Matamata, Firth Tower is a place to visit and enjoy. It shows the history of this district which reflects must of the New Zealand’s too. Pleasant green area, old building hosted school, church and even a jail. There’s also a campervan area in the carpark. Worth a visit :)

This is one of my favorite places and is always a great place to visit. The history and proximity to cycle track is awesome.

Nice place to visit if you're in the area. Tells you everything of the area and it's history. Amazing collection of farming equipment and how they use to live back in the days...

Awesome place to stay for a few nights. Toilets were open and it's super cheap for a site! $10 for no power $15 for a powered site! Nice walk to Matamata that's an awesome place in itself, and Hobbiton close by as well! The staff were also lovely, highly recommend this place!

A lot more than just a tower, lots of interesting museum exhibits including an old homestead, church, jail, barn, and school.

Quiet and idyllic - perfect spot for the night. Toilets and power available.

A well displayed museum with a very pleasant garden. A nice break from driving on a long trip.

Great free camping site! Clean bathrooms. Honesty box $10 per camper for non powered. Loved walking round the historic site with the kids - cool old buildings. Little noisy at night as close to main road - trucks passing.

Good parking on hard ground considering it was rather wet but had a good night's sleep. Lovely clean toilets and honesty box as Office was closed. Fee now $10 per motorhome instead of $6 per person per night. $15 per motorhome with power. But for someone like me on my own it actually cost me more but still nice to park somewhere were I feel safe and have nice clean toilets even though I'm fully self contained it's nice to have the convenience of a outside toilet that's clean . Nice place and money goes back towards the upkeep and cleaning of the Tower Museum etc so it's a win win situation 😀very happy to recommend staying at and Matamata is a very motorhome friendly place snd so are the people love it very happy to stop there and do my shopping etc I even have my storage unit in Matamata as the location is very central to the rest of the north island.

What a hidden gem, the family would love this place as it has a picnic area under the trees. It has all different historical houses from shops to homesteads. Reasonably priced so they preserve this lovely location. The host was very nice and helpful.

We stopped in here for a quick look at the museum, which ended up taking lots longer, as we became enthralled at the story behind the Firth tower. Set just 8 minutes away from the tourist town of Matamata, this is a very interesting place to visit, when you are in the area.

A hidden gem, with a wealth of history and picturesque gardens and heritage buildings such as the 1914 built chapel used for weddings now

Was really surprised at this place it was really interesting to see and read about how Matamata was in the olden days.

Used the overnight parking service. Easy entrance for our large 12m bus. The race from the entrance to the back property creates an issue for larger vehicles getting into a parking spot on the grass area, make sure you've packed down to save having to clean up once parked. There was quite a few people hooning down the drive / gravel into the back park up spot. Parking up and drinking and substance abuse. Made for a nervous stay. Quite a bit of noise down the adjacent property metal roadway. Could do with more power outlets for grass campers, the $15 powered site seems to be a national average cost and $10 unpowered.

This review is for the overnight campervan parking the firth tower offers: Best overnight campersite I have ever stayed at. There's clean running water for fresh water and a place to dump for grey water. Bathrooms are clean with stocked soap and paper towels. $12 for electricity spots which can be payed after hours on an honor based system. $6 for a non electric spot. Very calm, safe, and peaceful atmosphere. Extremely cheap compared to any other overnight camper spots

Helped out on a school trip, was very insightful! Had loads of fun making butter with the kids too!

Had been told about this museum but hadn't had opportunity to visit until the school holidays with the grandchildren. Well worth the time we were there. Grandchildren thought it was pretty cool too.

Well worth visiting. A wonderful experience

The kids really enjoyed it. Cafe wasnt open though.

A beautiful place. Well worth visiting

Stayed at the campervan parking next to the museum. Very reasonably priced with washroom facilities close by. 12 NZD for a powered site and access to the beautiful garden and museum grounds included. It is possible to walk all the way to Matamata, to spend time there or catch a ride to the Hobbiton Movie Set.

Love this place and it has so much of matamata history. The little methodist church and the venue would be great for small intimate weddings

Free to walk the grounds, 5$ entry to the museum. Can also park overnight in caravans/ motor homes and campervans with access to power for 12$ a night. Great little clean toilet block that are always open.

Didn't Go in as was on the Hauraki rail trail, the surrounding gardens and buildings are impeccably groomed and spotlessly clean, a fantastic workload for all the volunteers that. Keep this place operational, big ups.

Great museum really takes you back to a different time. Staff were lively thanks for a great day out👍👍👍

A good overview of the history of the Matamata district, and a great spot for a picnic lunch. Suggestion - please lose the car park at the ramped entrance so the elderly & disabled don’t have to fight their way between parked cars. Make the adjacent park a disabled space.

Wonderfull place. Theres always something to see even if you've been before. Kids love it. Great picnic spot. A must if you are visiting matamata! This local coloniel historical place an asset to our community. Look out for their upcoming events.

Great value for money, great variety of buildings, information, history Farming history interesting. Lovely setting We browsed for a good couple of hours. Also offers good overnight camping in carpark for motorhomes, also has powered sites

Visited on a very cold winter's day. Only people there but found the people welcoming and the whole place is so interesting. Something to interest every one here from climbing the stairs to the top of the tower to viewing the old homestead. There are sheds of farm machinery, a train with model railway inside and explanation of the building of Kaimai tunnel. You can park your campervan here and buy ice creams. Oh I forgot there us an old Post Office, jail and schoolhouse.

it seems like a small muesum but we ran out of time as there was so much to see!

Step back in time at this beautifully laid out homestead and grounds. Lovely cottage garden flowers and historical displays in the out-buildings. Peaceful and enjoyable.

We found the staff extremely helpful and the venue was great. A very interesting place. Well worth a visit.

Interesting about early settlers but not much on Maori, Pakeha, missionary relationships or the Land wars, all an important back drop to those times. Beautiful grounds. Excellent display and information on farming/ farm machinery. Kamai tunnel display.

Fascinating NZ history that often gets neglected. This place showcases kiwi history from how we farmed our land to trains and medical equipment back in 1800s. Well worth spending a couple of hours there

I have been there and gone through. Volunteers are very helpful easy to see everything. I have also parked in my motorhome over night good clean out side toilets also plug in for motorhome.

Beautiful place to visit was such a beautiful day

Interesting museum to stop and visit. Near Matamata. Beautiful buildings, Tower, Chapel, Barn, and homestead. Thank you!

Have been visiting here since a child many family wedding held here in the church and it does hold a lot of the town of Matamata and surrounding area history ...have a public toilet tin the car park which accomadate the many campervan that stay and a beautiful track that you can cycle or walk to matamata and back a very popular track that will be joined up with the Hauraki rail trail so you can cycle or bike to Thames

If you have a campervan and need a safe place to stay overnight while in or near Matamata - this is a great spot. Clean toilets plenty of parking.

Great displays and historic buildings. An important piece of NZ history.

Beautiful little hidden gem of a museum demonstrating architecture and information about early life in New Zealand. Cheap must-visit museum for all tourists in the area.

It's ok.

The Firth Museum was great. I learned lots of history of the place. Hope we could visit again during summer.

Fantastic look into the History of the Tower, the Fire, the People, the history of Agriculture evolving in New Zealand, as well as life in those times. Wars and all.

Visited this morning and it was a really well put together attraction and a great look back at the regions history, highly recommend taking a look when your in the area

A great piece of history for the area. Clean toilets.

Stopped here overnight for a place to sleep in campervan. Toilets closeby and area very quiet

1was very quiet until the farmer started his roundz

Really really interesting to walk around. It’s not huge by all means, but it’s a very dear place in Matamata and it’s got a lovely little bookstore in the middle of it.

Nice interesting... good stop for campervan and caravans.

Great place to wonder around. Pleasant gardens and well looked after. Interesting buildings to wonder through.

Good social histpey museum well worth a visit, for Welshies a bit like St.Fagans

Excellent display of yesteryear the inclusion of an agricultural history is brilliant

Lovely piece of history. We stayed over night in our camper. Beautiful spot.

Great place to park over even large motor homes. Wonderful set up to go and explore

Love staying at the firth tower needs the lawn mowed down the side love the history as well

Went for the camper parking, excellemt cost for using power, clean toilets that are free to use. Perfect.

Delightful museum. Wonderful collections of memorabilia. Lovely garden setting.

Stopped to stay over night. Wasn't able to snag a powered site, but provided bathrooms and a safe area to spend the night.

Beautiful, interesting and educational. Highly recommend stopping in or staying a night.

Interesting place to explore. Excellent for all ages. Peaceful and quiet!

It isn't open on a Wednesday.

Loved the history of the buildings and occupants. Great way to spend the afternoon

It's a great place to take the family and a picnic and a camera snap a photo of the lost the stayed behind .get lost in the past for the day .

What an awesome place. Highly recommend a visit here

Great place to wonder around. Pleasant gardens and well looked after. Interesting buildings to wonder through.

Really really interesting to walk around. It’s not huge by all means, but it’s a very dear place in Matamata and it’s got a lovely little bookstore in the middle of it.

Lovely piece of history. We stayed over night in our camper. Beautiful spot.

Great place to visit

Went for the camper parking, excellemt cost for using power, clean toilets that are free to use. Perfect.

Beautifully kept. Wonderful helpful friendly staff

Very well presented. Interesting information on local farming history

I have been there and gone through. Volunteers are very helpful easy to see everything. I have also parked in my motorhome over night good clean out side toilets also plug in for motorhome.

Great place to spend an afternoon, wonderful history

Great place to learn the history of the Matamata district.

Much more to see than first thought.. Great farming history

A very detailed look at life from the early settlers point of view.

Great place to have a look around and see some history.

Excellent stop over in Motor home. Well worth the stop.

Great place to go to if you like local history

Very very interesting and informative . great day out for the family .

Beautiful place to visit neat and tidy beautiful views

Love it here for the dog

Interesting place to stop and see

Great place to see. Allow plenty of time.

A place steeped in history a must see

Beautifully kept. Wonderful helpful friendly staff

Very impressed with everything there. Staff always on hand.

Nostalgic moments, classic history of the local community. Love it!

Good NZ history,shame no one else was there

Lots of old cottages and yesteryear farm equipments.

Great place to visit. Lots to see

A great spot to park/camp for the night

Very informative for all ages

Lots of oldtime history very interesting

Lovely time had with family

A fabulous display of local history

Motor home parking for free

Beautiful place to go spend some time

Very interesting worth a visit.

Nice clean toilets😀

Awesome place for the motorhome!

Great place to learn about Firth Tower

Beautiful wedding venue

Wonderful trip down memory lane.

Great place to visit

Well worth the visit

Awesome place to visit

All good, lots of information

Amazing staff and grounds

It was really interesting.

very lovely place

The place can not be missed

Nice and peaceful

Good museum

Interesting displays

Clean toilets

Good

Fabulous

Access to power

Great visit

Great place

The bees knees

Its beautiful

Great place

Good Facilities

(Translated) Great place to camp and please do not forget the donation that this place can be preserved as it is. Great garden and interesting history. We were not in the museum ourselves but even outside you can learn a lot. (Original) Toller Platz zum campen und bitte die Donation nicht vergessen dass dieser Platz so erhalten werden kann wie er ist. Toller Garten und interessante Geschichte. Wir waren selbst nicht im Museum aber selbst außerhalb erfährt man viel.

(Translated) Beautiful location. Collection of colonial buildings at New Zealand's only true keep. Nicely restored. (Original) Mooie lokatie. Verzameling van koloniale gebouwen bij de enige echte donjon van Nieuw-Zeeland. Mooi gerestaureerd.