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Why I love Christchurch

7 September 2010 – 12.33pm
When I got to work this morning, this was waiting for me:
Why I love Christchurch by Hikairoa from South New Brighton School

Why I love Christchurch by Hikairoa from South New Brighton

A few weeks back, we asked pupils from some of the schools in New Zealand to send us a postcard telling them why they love their town for our Conservation Week display. This year the theme is We Love You, New Zealand. One of the participating schools is Chirstchurch’s South New Brighton School, and here is a sample of what they sent. The postcards we got back were most likely sent at the end of last week, certainly before Christchurch was shaken by an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. Here are some more cards:

Why I love Christchurch, by Jireh of South New Brighton School

Why I love Christchurch, by Jireh of South New Brighton School

 Well, we love Christchurch too. We love Christchurch for all the reasons you’re reading, and because they’re tough. In the middle of the devastation, there’s still the resolve to keep going. Every day, I’ve been seeing pictures of buildings that aren’t usable any more. There’s pictures of roads and bridges that have been thrown around like cardboard. But there just aren’t any pictures of people giving up. And there aren’t any pictures from the rest of New Zealand of people shrugging their shoulders and saying anything about how that’s too tough and too bad.

The pukeko is why Yasmin loves Christchurch

The pukeko is why Yasmin loves Christchurch

Matthew loves the plants of Christchurch

Matthew loves the plants of Christchurch

So, a big thank you to the children and teachers of South New Brighton School.  These postcards show that every place has tiny little treasures and things that everyone loves. Maybe inside this there’s a little Cantabrian kickstart and a reason to keep the faith and keep moving. 
Because of this, we’re going to make our own project bigger. The bottom two pictures on this page are the front and back of a postcard that you can download and print out. Then you can stick both sides together, slap on a stamp  and send them to us at this address:
Discovery Centres
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
PO Box 467
Wellington 6140
Tell us what you love about your town. We’ll put them on display in NatureSpace from September 12 onwards, and a pin in the map for every town we get a reply from.  And right now seems to be a really good time for Aotearoa to show some aroha.
This is the back of the postcard - right click to save

This is the back of the postcard - right click to savethis is the front of the postcard - right click to save

This is the front of the postcard - right click to save

This is the front of the postcard - right click to save

Posted in Kids | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (1)

our giant kākāpō

3 August 2010 – 2.32pm
the Words on a Wing kakapo in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

the Words on a Wing kakapo in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

Look at NatureSpace’s newest visitor! This stylish mesh and steel kākāpō is two and a half metres long, a metre and a half tall, and is wearing a fashionable set of paper feathers covered in conservation-related messages from children. It ‘s part of the Words on a Wing campaign being run by the Department of Conservation, and it’s been a rather busy bird.

don't let the kakapo die! A filled in feather on the words on a wing kakapo | (c) Te Papa 2010

don't let the kakapo die! A filled in feather on the words on a wing kakapo | (c) Te Papa 2010

At the start of the year, somebody Very Important at DOC made a list of places for it to travel. It’s from Wellington, right? So it should go to Wellington Zoo. Check. Zealandia, check.  Te Papa? Check. The Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan….check. Well, why not? It’s not like any other kākāpō is going to get the chance to go flying any time soon.

But there’s a hitch. A flaw. A kink. One that could keep the poor Kākāpō grounded at Wellington airport, sadly looking out the window as the plane to Japan takes off without it. See, we can’t get kākāpō a passport until Kākāpō has a name. This is serious stuff, and we need your help.

one of the feathers filled out by New Zealand children for the Words on a Wing project | (c) Te Papa

one of the feathers filled out by New Zealand children for the Words on a Wing project | (c) Te Papa

Come into NatureSpace on level 2 between today and when Te Papa closes on August 23. Fill out a feather and inform some powerful people what your views are on conservation and kaitiakitanga (looking after the planet). Then grab an entry form and tell us what you think we should call Kākāpō. If our bunch of esteemed bird experts likes your name best of all, then we will send you and your family for a day surrounded by gorgeous native creatures in Zealandia. For free!

Not only that, but world-famous New Zealander Sirocco Kākāpō will announce the choice to the world every which way as fast as he can type (and he’s getting pretty good). The most famous kākāpō in the world is going to make you famous too!

Besides Te Papa, Kākāpō can be found in peaceful forest settings and on the

Discovery Centre host Keryn puts a feather onto the Words on a Wing kakapo | (c) Te Papa 2010

Discovery Centre host Keryn puts a feather onto the Words on a Wing kakapo | (c) Te Papa 2010

internet. Here are some peaceful electric glades you can find a Kākāpō or two:

1. This quiz about kākāpō that the Kiwi Consvervation Club put together.

2. The Words on a Wing page at DOC. It comes with photos so you can see where Kākāpō has been. There’s also a kit so you can make your own kākāpō in two or three dimensions. Astounding!

3. The hard-working men and women of the Kākāpō Recovery  programme have their own website. They’re based out of Whenua Hou-Codfish Island, which is off the west coast of Stewart Island. You can read about everything they do, and even follow it on their blog.

4. We in the Discovery Centres are not just pretty faces, though many of us are pretty, and those that aren’t pretty are quite handsome. If you go to our website, you can see what we have to visit, and maybe check out some of our cool school art projects, like the work that Te Kura Māori o Porirua did for Te Huka ā Tai. Definitely worth coming in for!

Posted in Birds, Events, Kids | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (7)

A Day of Legends

14 July 2010 – 4.48pm
Luke and Anton fish up the North Island in our Te Huka ā Tai Whānau Day | (c) Te Papa

Luke and Anton fish up the North Island in our Te Huka ā Tai Whānau Day | (c) Te Papa

  On Wednesday, several children came to Te Huka ā Tai at Te Papa and fished up the Te Ika a Māui (the North Island).  And why not? After a long and lovely day soaking in some of the scariest, hairiest, chilling and thrilling myths and legends Aotearoa has produced, it just seemed…you know…like a good thing to do. Also, there were prizes.

 They did this just like our trickster slickster hero Māui -tikitiki-a-Taranga, who was a bit of an overachiever, when you think about it. Do you know how big the sun is, how far away it is, and perhaps most importantly for any person thinking of tying it up with a giant rope, just how hot it is?  The answers are (1) a million earths could fit inside, (2) about 150 million kilometres away and (3) about 5,500 degrees celcius. And Māui, he put the hard word on the sun, and it did what it was told and slowed down!

Now, imagine also that you were the sister of the goddess of the underworld, and you discovered that some little trickster had fliched your five fingers of fire. That’s Māui again! And the fingernails belonged to Mahuika, who was the little sister of Hine-nui-te-pō, and he tricked her. Āue!

 It wasn’t just Māui who turned up that day. Rotorua legend Hatupatu was there. There were some scary silver-skinned Patupaiarehe and some mad mean Maero (and if you know what Maero are, you know that it’s hard to get them to behave themselves). There were superheroes like Gwil here, who got face painted and fierce.

tahi rua toru whā...pukana! |(c) Te Papa

tahi rua toru whā...pukana! |(c) Te Papa

Of course, fierce isn’t everyone’s flavour, and our face painters were more than happy to help anyone looking for something a bit less ferocious.

There are lots and lots and lots of good and entertaining books about Māori myths and legends in every library in the country (including ours) and you should very definitely go and explore them for yourselves.  Who knows what you might find?

Two best friends from Taranaki came to the Whānau day | (c) Te Papa

Two best friends from Taranaki came to the Whānau day | (c) Te Papa

Posted in Events, Kids, Māori | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Sphenodon punctatus

12 July 2010 – 4.15pm
At the halfway point of the school holidays already, and it’s time to bring out the big guns. We need to keep the kids entertained, and what better way than with a real life sphenodon punctatus? Great idea, and luckily for us, there’s several real ones, just up the road at Victoria University. Even luckier for us, they don’t mind dropping by Te Papa and showing them off.

So it was that several of us were all in NatureSpace at the same time to see our own repitilian ripsnorter.

Charley and Spike in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

Charley and Spike in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

 His name was Spike, and he was very gracious, sitting in his box waiting for a cameo while his handler Sue gave us a full and thorough rundown of the world of a tuatara.

Sue and Spike from Victoria University at NatureSpace, July 2010

Sue and Spike from Victoria University at NatureSpace, July 2010 | (c) Te Papa 2010

And interesting? Boy was it! Did you know these amazing things?

  • Tuatara metabolism is so slow that they can survive for maybe five years without food.  
  • A tuatara is born with a third eye. It’s a sensory organ that helps the newborn monitor its melatonin levels. Melatonin is a chemical that people and other animals have to help their bodies maintain circadian rhythms, which are the routines programmed into our (and a tuatara’s) brain. The third eye closes over as a tuatara gets older (and by old we mean OLD, because the oldest alive that we know of, Henry from Southland Museum is 110, and they could possibly get as old as 250).
  • A tuatara can hold its breath for nearly an hour. And, if that’s not enough, they can grow their tails back, if they’re careless and lose it under the fridge. And if you’re looking for more interesting information, how about this one, which I found care of the Ngati Koata trust,who look after Tuatara on Takapourewa Island in Cook Strait: A young tuatara will hunt during the day, to avoid being eaten by an adult tuatara at night.
After Sue had give her most excellent talk, the children set about to make their own tuatara. Ours were crafty cardboard creations, and there were some pretty fine and imaginative examples, such as the leopard print, or the one with the big black bushy eyebrows. And then there was the more realistic examples, as shown below:  two pictures are examples of classic tuatara behaviour: sunbathing on rocks and devouring insects.  And the bottom picture is the one I think sums it up: Xandi with his own rockstar reptile - the perfect end to a perfect day.
A tuatara crunching into a nice juicy waterbug in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

A tuatara crunching into a nice juicy waterbug in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

three tuatara sunbathing on a "rock" in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

three tuatara sunbathing on a "rock" in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

Xandi in NatureSpace with his fantastic creation | (c) Te Papa

Xandi in NatureSpace with his fantastic creation | (c) Te Papa

Posted in Kids, Reptiles | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)

a weevil the size of a football that I shall mention at the end

1 July 2010 – 7.59pm

Rest assured, we in the Discovery Centres are working very, very hard for you. We know that for most children, two weeks away from the blackboard is a thought not worth thinking, and we have a whole slate of great diversions to take your mind off THE THING WE WON’T MENTION. You know, the two weeks without sch…nothing.

And when we say that there is a whole barrel of interesting things going down, we’re not kidding. More than a barrel, there is a fridge stored inside a tanker being hauled by two helicopters, one piloted by a dragon, the other by a fairy princess. One of our holiday highlights has to do with this bro’Town interactive that our hard-working hosts Herbert and Jessica have magicked into being. Have a look:

The new bro'town laughter lines interactive being installed in Inspiration Station (c) Te Papa, 2010

The new bro'town laughter lines interactive being installed in Inspiration Station (c) Te Papa, 2010

Look at it! Isn’t it magnificent? It looks even better now, because it’s fully operational, wall-mounted and ready for your artistic hard work. Doesn’t that make you feel better about your school-less fortnight? Not enough? How about all the activities we’ve got planned for you? Four Discovery Centre  hours covering a whole range of activities, everything from tī rākau (playing sticks) to Samoan tattooing, to the very important visit of some Very Improtant People, in this case, the cast of bro’Town! A Very Important Reptile will also drop by: a real life, living breathing tuatara. Surely, that’s got to take the edge off the 336 hours you have to endure waiting to be let back into a classroom.

Still not enough? Craft yourself into a frenzy! That will make the 20,160 minutes pass that much more sweetly. You can pick from one of over a dozen craft activities. You like Japanese dolls? Be here on July 3, and we’ll make one together. Maybe you’re like Bruce Wayne – more of a pekapeka person. Well, you’re sorted too. Just be here on July 8, and you can shimmy up a  short-tailed bat mask. What else could you want? Tongan drums? Jandals in July? A completely classy and cleverly cool  Tīpare? A perfectly pretty but perhaps perplexing thaumatrope? Done.

Now, on to the weevil. The New Zealand Schools’ Photographic Competition winners are out and up onto our Discovery Centre walls: brilliant work done by kids who came up with a way to meet the challenge of capturing one of two tricky themes – “Celebrate” or “From the Paddock to the Plate”.

Bryce McQuillian's photographs in the Discovery Centre offices

Bryce McQuillian's photographs in the Discovery Centre offices

And to do this, we had to somewhat relectantly take down the astounding close-up photography of Bryce McQuillan. As you can see from what is clearly also a photographic masterpiece here, they have been keeping a low profile in our office.  But even that’s not a problem (unless you don’t like bugs and work in our office, then I suppose it could be a problem).  If it’s close up bugs you want, then just take a trip to NatureSpace on level 2, because we have 28 of them waiting for you to put them under the microscope. Maybe we’ll see you at Te Papa for a few of the 1.2 million seconds you’ll have free this July?

Posted in Events, Kids | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)
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