Museum of New Zealand

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Today on our last day in New Zealand, we spent most of the day on a guided tour of the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa in the Maori language. It is an immense exhibit of the history, culture and art of New Zealand. New Zealand was originally populated by Polynesians who traveled here in primitive boats, which DNA shows mostly came from Thailand. These are called the Maori’s. In 1804 England signed a document with the Maori chiefs giving sovereignty to England and The Queen, but provided for authority for the Maori over their lands.



Since then New Zealand had made significant strides to integrate the two cultures together. Every sign in New Zealand is in two languages - English and Maori. The Maori’s have equal representation in the government. The traditional greeting used for all of New Zealand is “Kia Ora” - Hello. Also interesting is New Zealand was the first country in the world to allow women to vote in 1893.



The museum covers the Polynesian culture, British culture that came into New Zealand, extensive coverage of earthquake and volcano science which is a major issue, and an amazing special exhibit regarding the World War I Battle of Gallipoli which saw nearly 8.000 New Zealand casualties. The Exhibit was done by the Weta studios of Peter Jackson and it is really thrilling, with over life sized models.



Tonight we have our final dinner together - 10 of us who started in Tasmania with 6 more who joined in Australia. I cannot imagine the miles we have traveled together, we have seen many things, we are all tired and ready to come home. It has been an amazing trip of a lifetime.



Once I return, I plan to do one more blog post, trying to summarize the important events and the best of my photos.

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