Martinborough Heritage Trail

Maori settled the Wairarapa many hundreds of years before the arrival of European settlers and have a rich history in the area.   However, they did not live in the area where the Martinborough was built, preferring to site their villages closer to the lakes and rivers where food and water was plentiful. This heritage trail focuses solely on historic sites within the town and because of this does not include the equally important Maori story  

Martinborough village has always been small and for most of its life was a rural service town.  The modest architecture reflects this history. As times changed many of the older commercial properties changed their purpose with many becoming cafes and bars. The courthouse is now the Men's Shed, the Electricity Plant is a small bore rifle club and the old Council building houses a dentist. Gone are institutions like the Banks and the businesses relating to the horses, that were the mainstay of transport in the early days. We hope the trail will give you a sense of a very different past.

You can pick up copies of the Heritage Trail Map from the i-site, the museum, Green Jersey Cycles, Pain and Kershaw and other local shops. You can also download a copy below.