Te Papa's Blog

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

I have to admit – there’s something special about about getting up at an ungodly hour to do something or see something out of the ordinary. Driving this morning through a beautifully still Wellington morning with no traffic is something out of the ordinary in itself

So it was exciting to see all the big trucks, flashing lights and men in reflective vests – I knew I’d come to the right place

The trucks and crane ready © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008

As Hutch has said in his blog, it’s been a lot of planning and this morning certainly showed it – all the guys have done a great job so far – it’s all going very smoothly.

There hasn’t really been too much to see – our girl is safely snugged up tight in her tank with a lid bolted on – it reminds me of an interesting-looking coffin.

The tank & lid all good to go © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008

Hutch and Dennis had the tank lifted up on dollies so she was sedately wheeled outside where the guys were waiting to attach her to the crane.

Nuthin but air © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008

Then all that was needed was for the tank to be carefully loaded onto the truck and taken down the road…

Loading up the truck © Copyright Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008

You’ll have to excuse the poor photography – it was dark, my hands were a wee bit wobbly and the shutter speed doesn’t allow for wobble.