Rare Creations is an interactive wooden art gallery and shop at 150 Mapua Drive in Māpua, Tasman. It shows contemporary wooden furniture and art by Andreas Niemann and other New Zealand artists, along with gifts and wooden craft kits. A workshop next to the gallery is where many of the wooden pieces are made.
Visitors are invited to touch and play. The interactive area has buttons, handles and knobs that set moving toys in motion. The U-Gears cabinet has a knob that starts its toys, and the solar cabinets need buttons pressed to activate them. The music box cabinet is wound up by hand. Many of the pieces come as kits with no glue needed, which the shop suggests as a family project. Our pick in Māpua for a hands-on afternoon with the children.