The Museum of New Zealand, also known as the Te Papa Museum, was a huge deal. Huge in many ways. First, it is physically large with six floors of gallery space and an outdoor area as well. Second, it covers so many aspects of New Zealand: European art, Māori artifacts, the Pacific Islander explorations, contemporary Māori art, and New Zealand natural history both geological and zoological. To say we were overwhelmed would be an understatement. We are heading to the South Island tomorrow or we would return to see what we may have missed.
We heard a weird noise and it was a cicada!
The dryer was broken so we had to hang out our laundry. Leslie's dress got blown off the line and onto the roof!
This fish was unfazed
Street are on the way to the museum
More street art
"We were down in Joe's Garage"...Frank Zappa
The museum is huge
Lots of iron art: Tt ain't heavy, it's Aur man!
Don't drop one of these on your toe
At the front of the museum
Front door
This giant gate is 15 or 20 feet tall
The shadow thrown by a huge piece of art
Woven nylon webbing
100 warriors could ride in this canoe
A giant anchor stone supposedly from one of the first ocean going canoes to reach New Zealand
The canoes were lashed together with various techniques like the one above
and this technique too
They get the rope badge
The second binding is used to hold this boat together
An ocean going canoe like this was built in 1965 and used to sail all the way to Hawaii and then on to Easter Island
An Easter Island Moai
So many intricate and beautiful pieces
The magic flute player
An incredible meeting house
Some serious weapons
Be afraid, be very afraid
Solomon Islander mask
Beautiful and deadly
Such fine detail on a war club
Each hook was made for different types of fish
Phar Lap was one of the winningest horses in the late 20's and early 30's
New Zealand's greatest race horse and an international star. he won 37 of 51 races in four years of racing. He was shot at in 1929 and eventually died from arsenic poisoning in 1932
An eerie child
I like the greenstone toki worn as a pendant
A painting commemorating a Māori reprisal in which an English ship accidently exploded
A 8 foot wide painting was very nice
So many different styles were on display
From landscapes to abstracts
We skipped this diispaly
Greenstone...so nice!
I agree
Wooded New Zealand
Deforested New Zealand
Even more hooks
That tis a big heart!
There were several rocks on display with descriptions of the type of rock and the place from where itis found
Moa moa, where did you go-a?
Many different types of Kiwis
Swooping in!
The extinct Moa which could grow to 9 feet tall
A carved rock
A huge entrance way
The entire building is on shock absorbers to mediate earthquake damage
More building sized art
Rowrrr!
A fun shot of this glass building
Through the art seek the golden hippo
Hot Sauce Hot
How did we miss this place, we walked past it a few times and just now noticed it
It sure looks pretty
On the top of the hill our place is on
It has been 229 days since we began our Migration
