• A 10-year hunt for a tiny parasitic ghost orchid

    Would you have the patience to spend 10 years trying to find something practically invisible? Botanist Carlos Lehnebach recently discovered his ‘holy grail’ – a collection of tiny ghost orchids in the Wellington region.

  • Sir Edmund Hillary’s Everest rock pendant

    Te Papa recently acquired a pendant featuring a rock Hillary collected from the first successful summit of Mt Everest / Chomolungma. History curator Stephanie Gibson tells us more.

  • Over-looked for a century: Macquarie Island shag added to the New Zealand list

    Curator Colin Miskelly shares his research resulting in the addition of a new (or old) bird to the official New Zealand bird list.

Dolphin skull safely nestled in a special carry-case

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Have you ever had to explain to customs at the airport what the odd-looking object is in your hand luggage? Head of Science Susan Waugh explains why she had a Hector’s dolphin skull in her carry-on.Read more

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Educator Martin Langdon shares our Learning Team’s 2019 Matariki kaupapa which involved collaborating with other GLAM institutions in the Wellington region so they could reach more tamariki – after all, Matariki is a time for sharing, renewal, and innovation.Read more

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The classic 1960s film ‘Blow-Up’ had quite and impact on the photographers featured in our exhibition ‘The New Photography’. Here, photography curator Athol McCredie reflects on the movie, its themes, and some of the ways it connected to New Zealand photography.Read more

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For over 25 years, Guy Ngan’s large-scale Forest in the sun (1976) hung in the Beehive before being gifted to our collection. Now it’s back on display, exhibiting at The Dowse until September. Senior Digital Editor Daniel Crichton-Rouse speaks to Curator Textiles Anne Peranteau about the prep work involved, as well as the artwork’s weavers Joan Calvert and Jean Ngan.Read more

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Lots of us care about saving the whales, but not many get as hands-on as technician Stephanie Ho. She’s spent the last nine months caring for whale bones in Te Papa’s collections. It’s a messy, smelly and painstaking job, but it’s protecting these important specimens for the future. Stephanie tells us more.Read more