Morrinsville, aka Cow Town, New Zealand

Recently I made a day trip to Morrinsville, (population 7000) purely because I had never been there before. Less than two hours from my home city of Auckland, Morrinsville is a rural service town set in the lush, productive and prosperous, dairy farming area of the Waikato.  It is a busy, bustley sort of place, a genuine hub for the local farming community.  It is not known as a tourist destination, nevertheless, I was still keen to find out what it had to offer.

First step was to go to the local information centre to collect maps of the town and a list of points of interest. Then I headed off full of the excitement I always feel when exploring a new place.

The Nottingham Castle as it was in 1877.  See how it looks today in photo below

I went straight to the Morrinsville Heritage Centre, a small but very well curated museum, where I learnt a lot about the history of the town and the surrounding area.  I found that the town was named after an Aucklander, Thomas Morrin, who owned a vast estate there. It was Thomas who laid out the plans for the town.  Interestingly, Morrin Road, near where I live in Auckland, is also named after him. Inside the museum is an original and complete colonial cottage dating from 1874, which was moved there and is incorporated into the museum building.  I enjoyed this museum, taking my time to read and study everything. Regular readers of this blog will know I have a penchant for small, local museums.

Next, armed with a map, I set out to do the Heritage Walk. As is not uncommon in New Zealand many of the sites of interest are now occupied by utilitarian, modern buildings, the heritage lost to progress.  I found the walk a bit disappointing to be honest.  Stand out, though, is the category 1 heritage listed Nottingham Castle Hotel (1914) which holds a prominent position at the end of the main street.

It started to drizzle so I sought refuge in the excellent Loxy and Co cafe (read about it in my previous post) and once fortified with a good hot coffee wandered through town to look at the Herd of Cows street art.  Many small towns try to make their mark by coming up with a theme. Morrinsville, since it is in the middle of a dairy farming area, has chosen 'cows' as its symbol. Drawing on that theme there are  60 full size painted cows, many with witty titles, and painted appropriately to their location, dotted throughout the town.  The piece de resistance is 'Mabel the mega cow' on the road leading into town.  Mabel is 6.3 metres high. This street art is a bit twee but the cows are bright, quirky and cheerful and I would suggest a 'hunt the cows day' as a fun activity for the family. Children would love them.

Mabel the mega cow is 6.3 metres (21Ft 3ins) high

Cow in police uniform at the police station.  Note the red and blue horns (lights)
Below a small selection of the 60 cows dotted around town

Unfortunately, the day I was there the Wallace Art Gallery was closed but I am told it is good and the town is proud of it.

There are many small towns like Morrinsville in New Zealand and some of them look tired and dreary but what I liked about Morrinsville was that it had a busyness, a spring in its step, and a sense of pride in its importance to the surrounding farming community.  Would I go there again? Probably not, because I would have no reason to, but I'm glad I've been.