The Wellington Museum (formerly the Museum of Wellington City and Sea) is an excellent introduction to New Zealand’s capital.
The museum is housed in the 1892 Bond Store building, which was designed by the leading architect of the day, Frederick de Jersey Clere and contains fours floors of exhibits about the city. There are exhibits on the city’s social and cultural history including interactive exhibits and three audio-visual areas showing short films about Wellington.
The museum’s exhibits cover themes such as Wellington’s maritime history and the 1968 sinking of the Wahine ferry in Wellington Harbour and the A Millennium Ago exhibit, which depicts Māori creation stories.
The Attic gallery on the museum’s top floor has an eclectic collection displayed in a quirky steampunk-style with King Dick the lion (one of Wellington Zoo’s first stuffed animals) juxtapositioned alongside a display of Wellington-themed items relating to lions, and there is also a display about UFO sightings and a time machine, Ngā Hau, which blends cinema and performance art.
