We’re now in the museum, back of house. Usually the corridors are wide and spacious but this morning seemed a bit like the Tardis in reverse as we took the tank through – smaller.
Ramp - covered with plywood for extra weight support © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008
Part of the corridor involved not only a ramp down but a slight bend at the same time. The forklift at the front of the tank was used as the brakes. It was a bit hairy at times, but in the end went all ok.
Gently does it © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008
Tommy and Warren were the forklift operators throughout – and I tell ya, I have complete respect for their skills. They had to gently nudge the tank into the exact position – very cool to watch.
Warren on the left, Tommy, right © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008
Once the tank was in place, the lid was lifted off by forklift, guided by us humans.
There she is underneath the plastic © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008
© Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008
The conservators will add water this morning to the tank and then insert the mounts (like internal water wings) so her mantle is expanded a little bit. This will not only make her look a little better (remember she has no skeleton so her body has ‘deflated’ a bit) but help support her mantle. After that they’ll add the preservative liquids to the water and the see-through lid will be put in place on Thursday.
All on track ready for December 13 opening 
2 Comments
Hi all, so glad to hear all went well during the move…it wasn’t all that straight-forward was it? Very best wishes for the opening on the 13th.
Yours,
(Squid geek) Smivs.
Hey Smivs – fellow squid geek
From my point of view (as a supporter-watcher!) the move did look fairly straightforward – yeah there were some hairy moments like the very tight-squeeze-going-round-the-corner-and downhill-all-at-once move but hey – we got her there all in one piece! Just still doing final tank preparations but its all good. BIG ups to the guys who planned and executed the move!