maori cultural centre te koha gallery and soul seeker studio

Not a large place but it's free and there is a nice lady at the door to help. I thought prices were reasonable for hand made craft. But I wonder how some of the fine detail of the jewel was achieved pre Dremel tools. Franz Josef is a small town & the Cultural Centre is on the Main St so a visit is recommended.

Jan the owner was very knowledgeable and helpful and made you relaxed The stones and carvings are beautiful. My husband carved his own piece of NZ greenstone in their workshop

We stumbled across this magic place and spent hours with the stones and the delightful and knowledgeable Jan while Margaret made me a wristlet and earrings to match my amazing pendant. Wonderful products and much history in this place, go and make your own taonga with these wonderful people!!!

Beautiful local jewelry. Nice owners who enjoy sharing their knowledge of the area. A workshop in the back where it is possible to try some jewelry carving yourself.

A good authentic Moari arts & crafts centre. You can have a lesson & create your own jade craft . Take time to watch a very good wood carver (there most of the time or not far away !) Interesting original arts & crafts to buy.

This little shop exudes warmth and friendliness. It provides an opportunity to make your own jewellery. The owner was friendly and perceptive and we felt under no pressure in simply browsing at pieces on display. We did fall in love with a couple of pieces made by local artists, and which were reasonably priced but sadly, we bought only one.

So pleased we found this shop, and could read some diverge history behind the Maori symbols. Lady in shop very friendly and helpful.

Our heli-hike for the day was cancelled and we found ourselves wondering into the Maori Cultural Centre. After being greeted but a very friendly woman named Jen, she told us that we could make our own jewelry if we wanted, instead of buying something. To me this really showed passion in the craft as well as truly wanting people to experience making their own jewelry rather than making a profit. Making your own was much cheaper than buying an already made one. This I find honorable. The whole experience from start to finish was incredible. Margaret was an amazing teacher! They were all so helpful & informative. My partner & I both made a Toki with Aotea Stone (Only found in Jacob's River, South Westland NZ). We were so happy with our final bound pieces! A truly unforgettable experience! Thank you so much team, we will definitely be telling everyone who comes or passes through Franz Josef to stop in! :)

With the weather closing in and a couple of hours to fill before we were due to go and see the white herons nearby, we were lucky enough to wander into Te Koha Gallery. While I was having a look around, my husband discussed the process, time and cost of making our own greenstone necklace. With rain falling outside and nothing much else to do we decided we may as well give it a go. Well! We were so glad that we did!! What an experience! I am so glad that we were fortunate enough to have the experience of carving our own pounamu! Jan and Ryan were extremely friendly and helpful and nothing was too much trouble. My husband and I are teachers and both agreed afterwards that if Ryan was not a carver he would make a wonderful teacher! He was patient and explained each step well. He was good at giving us just the right amount of help and guidance so that we were able to end up with a quality product that we could proudly say we had made ourselves! Jan was also really friendly and gave us a lot of help + plaited some wonderful cords for us to put our pounamu on. The pieces we made looked great and the price was really reasonable. Both my husband and I agreed that we would definitely do it again if we were in the area. A+ :)

We found the cultural centre to not have a lot of Maori culture but lots of really expensive stuff to purchase. Really disappointing. We wanted to learn more about the culture but they were not interested in talking to us when we were obviously not going to buy the ridiculously overprice handicrafts.

We really enjoyed the opportunity to learn and create our own unique jade pieces. The staff were patient, friendly, knowledgeable and extremely helpful. It was a truly unique experience and a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. It gave us an excellent appreciation for the amazing talent and skill of those professional stone carving artists. Highly recommended experience!

This is a great place and you should stop in at least for a look. The Maori lady who spoke to us was very knowledgeable about the jewellery symbols and their meaning and passed on some great bits of information about Maori customs and beliefs. They have a good range of locally made jewellery including locally sourced greenstone and other minerals. You can also make your own jewellery or watch the artists at work. Highly recommended.

I found this shop extremely interesting and an amazing place to visit. Tourists were there making their piece of jewellery. They were able to choose a stone and craft their own design or choose one from a book of designs. They all seemed to be totally engrossed in what they were doing and received expert advice and guidance from the owners. I was impressed that I was invited to observe the processes even though they knew I did not have the time to make my own piece. Give this a go but allow yourself a couple of hours as it will be a really rewarding experience.

We had an amazing time on a rainy day in franz Josef when we couldn't go up the glacier. Jan and Brian are absolutely lovely and made every effort to make sure that our jewellery turned out perfectly. It was a lot of fun to carve the jewellery from the beautiful aotea stones unique to that region of NZ, and we now have 3 beautiful matching bracelets to remember our trip by, and I also carved a lovely pendant, all for a very good price! Do NOT buy a generic jade necklace from a standard tourist shop anywhere else, go down to the gallery and do the "carve your own" and make your own jewellery for the same price if not cheaper either for yourself or as a great gift for a loved one and have lots of fun in the process! Definitely a worthwhile experience.

What a fantastic opportunity to create your own masterpiece. With expert guidance from Jan and Ryan you choose your stone, create a design or use their library and start cutting, grinding, drilling and polishing until you are happy with your own result. Jan will finish it all off with a beautifully knotted cord. This day beat our expectations by a country mile. Very satisfying and excellent value for money.