Shantytown Heritage Park

Awesome activities with kids, mine were ages 12, 14 & 16 and all were entertained and enjoyed themselves, the gold panning was the highlight as well as playing around with the prison and reading the orewa hospital medicines. 100% highly recommended. A bit pricy for the whole experience $145 but worth it for all 5 of us.

The visit surpassed my expectations. I’ve visited many historic artefacts displays but this was one of the best. Real quality stuff to see. Priceless steam trains, printing presses, medical equipment all sorts. Great to wander through the timber mill with lots of video displays. A working classic steam train. Probably a visit loved more by the guys than guyesses.

Absolutely loved it, make sure to come early to give yourself time to walk around, lots o d history, steam train was an exciting experience and I loved the uniqueness of the town. Don’t know what all the negative reviews are for, I came when there was no costume actors around and I think they have done a wonderful job at showing the history. The lady in the front is also very kind and sweet. Highly recommend coming here if you love history

We really enjoyed our day at Shantytown, especially the restored rail line and the panning for gold (kids are guaranteed to find a few specks since the pans are seeded). The main villager is fascinating with old storefronts and some of the buildings can be visited. There are also vintage fire trucks and other vehicles as well as a number of easy walking tracks to different parts of the park. This is a great place to visit with children.

Enough there to fill in a couple of interesting hours take the steam train to the sawmill and try your hand at panning for gold, good coffee and food