Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, commonly referred to as Te Papa (Māori for Our Place), is New Zealand’s leading museum and Wellington’s top attraction attracting over one million visitors each year.

The museum is housed in a building on Cable Street on Wellington’s waterfront and is comprised of six floors although the museum’s main exhibition space is on levels 2–4. Te Papa is noted for its excellent interactive exhibits and interesting displays about New Zealand culture and history.

Starting at the main entrance on level one, the first permanent exhibit is Quake Breaker which demonstrates how base isolators work to protect major buildings (including Te Papa) during an earthquake.

Level two features the Britten V1000 motorcycle, an excellent exhibition about New Zealand’s involvement in the Gallipoli campaign during the First World War and displays about natural history plus the Awesome Forces exhibition. The Awesome Forces exhibition focuses on geological forces with an emphasis on earthquakes and it features an earthquake simulator where you can experience being inside a house during an earthquake. One of the highlights of this level is the world’s largest colossal squid. The 4.2m long, squid weighs 495kg and was captured in 2007 in the Ross Sea off the Antarctic coast. It is the only colossal squid on display anywhere in the world.

The Bush City exhibit is an outdoors exhibition space between levels one and two. This area features native plants as well as a glow worm cave and fossil dig.

Level three has the Blood Earth Fire gallery, which depicts how introduced species have transformed New Zealand’s environment, and displays commemorating the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s and 1870s.

On level four you will find interesting displays about Māori and Pacific Islander history and culture and its place in New Zealand society along with stories of people of have migrated to New Zealand over the past 200 years. The Mana Whenua gallery focuses on Māori culture with taonga including a waka taua (war canoe) from the Whanganui region as well and displays about the Moriori, the original inhabitants of the Chatham Islands. There is also an exhibit relating to the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, although you have to visit the He Tohu exhibition in the National Library to see the original treaty. Level four also features the skeleton of Phar Lap, New Zealand’s most famous racehorse.

On level six, there is a viewing terrace with sweeping views of Wellington Harbour.