Pickled Thumbs, Waihi, New Zealand

publication date: Dec 1, 2007

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author/source: Polly Evans

Many people don’t consider Waihi to be the centre of the universe. It’s a small town on New Zealand’s North Island, at the foot of the Coromandel. In its heyday, in the early 1900s, Waihi was one of New Zealand’s most prosperous gold-mining towns. The mine is still operating today though, frankly, there’s not a lot to see. There is one really good reason to visit Waihi, though, and that’s the museum.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a place you’ll be wanting to cross continents for. But if you’re driving around in your RV and find yourself nearby, it’s an excellent place to stop. Somebody with a great love for Waihi has spent hours in his shed creating model railways and ore-crushing pistons that fly into action when you stand on a particular mat or press a button. Better than that, though, is the preserved snake. ‘This snake-in-a-bottle bears absolutely no relevance to our museum. But it is proving a good talking point anyway,’ says the sign.

The most intriguing exhibit of the Waihi Museum, though, is its collection of pickled thumbs. The story goes like this: back in the bad old days of the original mining company, the miners had no pensions. The only way they could get out of working themselves literally to death was to lose a limb, to be declared unfit for work, and to be paid compensation by the company. The smallest limb that counted was the thumb, so ageing miners used to lop off their digits, dreaming as they did so of their slippers and soothing cups of cocoa by the fire. Somewhat bizarrely, the company kept the thumbs preserved in bottles, and the museum keeps them on display to this day.