Haven’t been to ferrymead for a few years, always a great afternoon exploring the park, be sure to visit curragh House!.
Haven’t been to ferrymead for a few years, always a great afternoon exploring the park, be sure to visit curragh House!.
Thoroughly enjoyed walking around this historic village. It's huge! It has one of everything. The tram ride was fun and informative too.
We went with three young children on a bleak winter's day, and we and the children had an enjoyable couple of hours. The cosy restored house had fires burning and a resident guide who welcomed us warmly, showed us around, told us the history, and engaged well with the children. The tram ride was another big hit with the children (and interesting to us adults too). The driver was another excellent guide, and again great with the kids. There were many interesting exhibits. We were impressed with how well-kept the facility is and with how attractive the park is generally (the backdrop of the Port Hills is lovely). We could have spent longer there, and we hope to return.
We went on a fairly quiet Sunday during the latter stages of lockdown but were happy to see what we did see. We'd have loved to have seen rail action of any kind but the model trains that were running were the nearest to that wish.
A lot of the museum settings across a whole range of our pioneering history were interesting and recalled a lot of our own personal history as well.
The tram ride was great but, at $5.50 each, seemed a tad expensive.
All up, it was a pleasant way to spend an hour or two on a sunny Sunday.
The best place of its kind that I've ever visited, and I can't understand why it wasn't a lot more crowded (though it's not too easy to get to by public transport). We visited on one of the days when the steam train was running, and with that, the tramway, the buildings, the village and everything, I just can't speak too highly of it.
I have visited a number of such exhibitions: Mt Vernon in Virginia, the old village in Denmark. Ferrymead is run by volunteers and therefore is not fully manned all the time. What they lack in numbers, however, the volunteers make up for in spirit. They are truly devoted to their role and quite knowledgable. There is a lot of walking and self touring, but it is all interesting.