i’ve had the pleasure of visiting te papa tongarewa, the national museum of new zealand, twice now. the first time was one rainy, cold day in my first week in town, and i went solely for the gallipoli exhibition. the next time was a week later, when i went in to meet a connection via my virtual friend s, from los angeles. i stayed on for a private tour of the museum and then enjoyed a small lunch in the cafe. i touch on both experiences in a two part post. read on for part two…
the day that i met bryn lloyd at te papa was a pretty gross day. i entered the museum at just past 10:15 one morning and encountered bryn walking down the stairs. i’m getting really good at finding the people i’m supposed to meet when i’ve never met them before, so when i noticed the tall, thin, dark-haired young man coming down the central stairs, i knew it was bryn. we are connected through two degrees of separation, and he’s heavily involved in the young travel industry here in wellington.
we shook hands and headed for the cafe upstairs. there is a cafe on the ground floor, but i hadn’t known about the one on the fourth floor. turns out, this is place to go. it’s quiet, it’s fairly empty, and it serves a pretty good latte.
after our conversation, i accepted a tour of the museum. entry to the museum and most of the exhibits, including the gallipoli: the scale of our war exhibition, is free; tours (held from 10:15 and then once an hour) cost $15.
i had about fifteen minutes to kill before my tour started, so i found a quiet place to sit. the museum is very well designed and there are a lot of places to sit away from the crowds. my guide was samir. a small, wiry man in his 50s, he was incredibly knowledgeable about the museum. two other girls joined us, and samir began speaking in maori.
samir leads us first to a replica of a maori gate. he talks about the figures and what the tongues leaning to the right or left meant. paua shells decorate this gate as watchful eyes, telling visitors, “you are welcome, but we are watching you.”
next, he guides us toward the gallipoli exhibit, where a large carpeted circle under our feet mimics one in the ceiling above. standing here, he talks about the heavens and the earth and then leads us into the awesome forces exhibit. here is where visitors learn about gondwanaland, the southern continents after the breakup of pangaea. volcanic activity makes up most of new zealand, so it should come as no surprise that the exhibit gives over much of its space to interactive displays on plate techtonics, magma, geological erosion, and volcanic eruptions across the country. earthquakes also feature predominantly in new zealand’s genetic makeup. we do not go in, but there is a small house that recreates an earthquake. watching it shake from the outside is something of an experience. (i make a note to try it eventually.)
large-scale images of recent volcanic eruptions and television reporters at the scene of such disasters fill one wall. there’s a display bringing to life the napier earthquake of 1931 and there is information regarding the more recent christchurch one. here, samir tells us the story of the maori ancestral parents who were forced apart by their son, the trees, to live as the earth and the sky, leaving a child in mother earth who the maori know to be earthquakes.
in this same exhibit is evidence that new zealand’s native creatures and plants may have traveled to the country as it split from gondwanaland. we meet the flightless moa (imagine kevin from up, only a dull brown rather than a rainbow bird,) the tuatara (a dinosaur-like reptile,) the nocturnal kiwi (not extinct as many believe, just endangered,) and the weta (a giant insect.)
many of new zealand’s native plants and animals are being brought back to life and away from the brink of extinction at zealandia, a ecosanctuary outside of the city. learning about them from a historical standpoint is rather interesting.
samir finally leads us out of awesome forces and we make our way into the mountains to sea exhibit. you can journey through six ecosystems: alpine, bush, freshwater, coastal, open ocean, and deep sea. as we move deeper into the exhibit, the walls grow a deep blue and we have clearly left the alpine and bush ecosystems behind. i no longer hear birds calls. hanging high above my head is a full skeleton of a pygmy blue whale. back here, deep in the ocean, is also the giant squid i have heard so much about. encased in a preservative liquid, it’s about ten feet long and two feet wide. samir talks more about how te papa acquired it. in february 2007, the crew of a deep sea fishing boat in the ross sea, antarctica, hauled the squid up on a longline. recognising the impact this would have, they preserved it and – long story short – it was gifted to te papa in may 2007.
we leave the giant squid behind and make our way to the elevator: we’re heading to the fourth floor to learn about the maori. here is an area of the museum that i’m not sure i would have ever made it to on my own. tucked into a corner of the museum that overlooks the harbour is the te marae, the maori meeting place. it’s serene. there is no one here save us.
from here, we leave the light-filled space for a traditional maori village – a scaled-down boat depicts how the first humans would have made their way to new zealand, and a reconstructed longhouse shows how they lived. apart from the houses would be the te marae, and there is an intricately carved example of one.
lastly, samir leads us to the treaty of waitangi. if you know anything about first nations or the american indians and how they were treated by the incoming europeans, this is important. the maori were given (depending on which way you look at it, i suppose) the same rights as british citizens. of course, the wording between the english version of the waitangi treaty and the maori version varies. of course.
with a graceful nod of his head and a word of thanks, samir leaves us here, giving us options as to what to do next. the two girls wander off toward the art and i am left to my own devices. i’m incredibly impressed with the depth of the tour, although i know it doesn’t touch on even half of what the museum offers. i don’t have time to explore further this time but i know i will be back.
this is part two in my experiences at te papa tongarewa, the national museum. coming soon, there will be a part three to this series, thanks to bryn! all rectangular images are courtesy of te papa.