The Waihi Gold Discovery Centre The experience

September 22, 2007

The Waihi Gold Discovery Centre The experience

The Waihi Gold Discovery Centre is the story of gold in New Zealand. As part of the approval process, New Zealand exhibition company Story Inc has developed an outline concept for the experience.

It includes a cultural history of gold mining from an industrial point of view and complements other renowned New Zealand attractions such as the indigenous experience of Rotorua.

The Waihi Gold Discovery Centre comprises:

 The entrance framed by great weighty slabs at different angles through which a pattern of cascading streams flow down to meet the street. Visitors feel as if they are entering an underground cavern flanked by showcases of dramatically-lit gold jewellery.

 Next is an I-site and DoC area where visitors learn about what’s in the centre as well as some of the other amazing attractions Waihi has to offer.

 A tunnel-like portal in which a travelator conveys visitors back through time via early mining images and audio bites to the exhibition area.

 The exhibition area is choice-based with film and audio embedded in displays and available on demand. It covers the geology of the area, gold and the world, the Waihi landscape, early mining days and how mountains were moved. View-shafts provide glimpses of other parts of the exhibition.

 The vertigo experience comprises a tunnel cantilevered over the Martha Mine pit. Doors open and close dramatically as visitors make their way down the tunnel before the magnitude of the mine is revealed as smoky glass underfoot clears.

 Back in the main exhibition area the social history of Waihi as a mining town is revealed by yarns told in the words – and voices – of those who were there.

 Adjacent is a themed walking tunnel leading to the pumphouse where an enclosed viewing platform from which visitors ‘descend’ via open mesh cage – but really only a an air-lock-type compartment – to the miners’ tunnel.

 The tunnel is a fully immersive experience with audio providing the sound effects and smaller ‘nodes’ containing genuine-looking items relating to the culture and danger of a miner’s lot underground.

 Exiting the tunnel, visitors receive a pass into New Zealand Mint’s gold pour area and the retail store. This is where visitors can get their hands on the gold as the gold pour, vault and retail areas are extensions of the exhibition.

ENDS

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