Auckland War Museum

After bragging on facebook no less than two days in a row that I was sitting on the deck enjoying the new found warmer spring temperatures, it turned grey, dark, rainy and cold once more. After a few days of this, Mark and I decided to head off to the museum located here in Auckland. the museum itself is beautiful, and has stunning white marbles steps that lead up to it, a gorgeous bandstand and it is situated in the middle of a large intercity park.

The marble stairs lead up to the front of the building - this is the side set of stairs from the parking lot.

We spent hours there and still did not really take it all in as there was so much to look at, so much information to read and so many interactive displays. The whole first floor was dedicated to the Maori and Pacifica peoples (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Cook Islands).  This included artwork from each culture, fishing and hunting gear, jewelry, dress, statues and carvings used in ceremonial events, cooking and daily
household living.

 This photo is the inside of a traditional Maori meeting house being restored by the museum. 

 This is a carving that was to be situated over the door frame of a family home. 

Maori Carvings 

  A second set of Maori carvings 

 Maori jewelry carved from Jade 

A basket woven to protect the Hangi (food) which is cooking over the rocks. This is a traditional way of cooking, and very tasty. The Kapa Haka group at school cooks using this traditional method and the food is sold as a fundraiser on campus. It is always delicious - stuffing, sausage, meat(lamb or chicken), sweet potato and vegetables.

Cook Island jewelry made completely from shells - even the white and blue necklace 

The second floor was the Natural History floor - this included stuffed animals. It was interesting as there were A LOT of stuffed mammals, quite ordinary things until you realize that the only mammals on the islands are things people brought with them, and the people themselves. This makes mammals quite a rare thing to see - if you don't count the sheep and cats - so people go to the  museum and zoo to see them. It also had a walk of the dinosaurs, some sections on coastal areas, underwater areas, volcanoes and a room called "weird and wacky".

We learned that the majority of the Albatross Species breed and nest here in New Zealand. This is the largest of them. Perhaps we will be lucky enough to see one in during our time here. 

This was by far the highlight for Mark - a whole display dedicated to the different crabs in and near New Zealand. I have to admit, some of them were quite impressive! 

A stuffed Kiwi bird - we still have yet to see a live one here in New Zealand. We are always on the lookout, but I fear that they may be something that is very difficult to cross off our list of things to see and do while we are here. 

There was, as in any museum worth its salt, a dinosaur walk. Mark and I looked at each other before we went in and were conversing about how many of the displays would be from Canada - mostly Alberta is what we thought. The final count was ONE! One display form Canada, one from Chili, two from the US and four from England. Every thing else was from New Zealand itself, or Australia, and they have some remarkable skeletons. 

The natural history section also included some tanks with live animals. This is a common NZ gecko. There were also tanks with cockroaches, fish,  bugs and other lizards.

This is a model of a penguin that one was found here in New Zealand - it's pretty much the same size as me. 

The third floor was dedicated to the wars. It housed  two planes, a roll of honour for each of the wars where New Zealand fought and had casualties, a section on Samoan Independence, a section on the Holocaust and current peace keeping efforts of the Kiwis abroad. We didn't take too many photos here as some of it seemed to sad to photograph, and other bits seemed rude to photograph given the content. 

This is a map of England and it's allies shown in the crests. This was so old, that Newfoundland (the one on the most left) was it's own crest as it was not yet part of Canada. There were crests all along the bottom of the maps too.

One of the two planes, with its engine opened up so you can see what was really driving the plane.

Overall it was a fantastic way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon. We both agreed that we need to go back and spend some more time reading and viewing the pieces as there was so much.