Te Papa

Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand's National Museum

Te Papa is built to be tsunami proof. The main doors are opposite the sea-side of the building.

Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand's National Museum, is situated on the Wellington Waterfront.

Last week I went to view the Andy Warhol exhibition and this week I was lucky enough to be part of a guided tour put on for volunteers at Zealandia.

I chose to come in by train, a short but scenic ride from my home through tunnels and bush then sweeping round a corner to give a spectacular view of the harbour before reaching the station.

  The Museum dominates part of the waterfront as it juts out toward the harbour like the prow of a canoe. Its site was a point of controversy due to Wellington being so earthquake prone. If a tsunami is triggered and sweeps into the harbour, a seiche may occur. Water will surge from one end of the harbour and back repeatedly, damaging the shoreline until things settle down again. Te Papa with New Zealand's treasures in it would be in the line of fire. This was taken into consideration when it was constructed and the building is supposed to withstand such onslaughts. Te Papa Tongarewa also has base isolators made of rubber so that it can survive large earthquakes as well. Lets hope it is never put to the test. 

We volunteer guides had an hour's tour with a couple of museum guides. Our guide seemed a bit intimidated by us even though we said she should just consider us as ordinary tourists. 

I was most impressed to see the Hawai'ian cloak and helmet given to Captain James Cook in 1779. He was killed three weeks later. They say the cloak is made up from 20,000 birds, some of which are now extinct.

The cloak given to James Cook three weeks before he died

The helmet that went with the cloak.

To finish off we tried the High Ride which threw us around a bit as we simulated bungy jumps and other more vigorous activities to be tried in New Zealand. 

Te Papa is always worth a visit. It is a great place to spend an hour or two and you will always stumble across something new as it is set up to be explored and for discoveries to be made. I had not seen the Hawai'ian cloak before as it is tucked away behind another exhibition on its own and yet it is important and exciting to see.