Whittaker's Musical Museum

Lloyd and Joan Whittaker spent years pulling old instruments out of second-hand shops, antique dealers and farm sheds around New Zealand, and in 1996 they put the collection into a room beside the art gallery in the Artworks complex at Oneroa. It has been open ever since, run by a charitable trust and staffed by volunteers.

What sets it apart from a museum of things behind glass is that most of the instruments still work, and children are encouraged to try them. Concertinas and bandonions, pianolas that play themselves once somebody pedals, a harpsichord, and the 1897 concert grand Paderewski toured with are all in the room together. Live classical concerts are held on the same instruments through the year. It is a small place and a short visit, best paired with something else in the village.