Te Koha Gallery

Te Koha Aotearoa (formerly Te Koha Gallery) is a family-run carving workshop and gallery in a valley just outside Franz Josef / Waiau on the West Coast, where visitors can carve their own pounamu pendant under guidance. Much of the pounamu used is sourced from local West Coast riverbeds.

The Goodall whānau (Jan, Mike, Nevada and Vinnie) opened Te Koha as a carve-your-own-pounamu studio in 2010. Mike is of Tainui and Ngāti Maniapoto descent, and the family started the studio to share that culture with visitors to the West Coast. For its first decade the studio ran inside their Franz Josef gallery, before moving in 2019 to the family farm on Waiho Flat Road.

The workshop takes around two hours. It begins with the meanings of pounamu and its traditional forms, then each person chooses their own stone, plans their design, and shapes it by grinding, detailing and polishing before finishing it with a cord. No carving experience is needed, and workshops suit individuals and small groups. It makes a popular wet weather option around Franz Josef, and a courtesy van from the township is available.

Alongside the workshop, the gallery offers finished jade, wood and bone carvings by local master carvers.