Day 19 NZ - Te Papa Museum in Wellington

Today, based on grandpa's recommendation, we visited the Te Papa museum in Wellington. We slept in well past nine, had a leisurely breakfast and meandered down the street to check it out.

It's a gorgeous museum in the heart of the waterfront and highlights the Maori history as well as the implications of European settlers. We spent a good deal of time walking through the Earth and Fire exhibition about Maori culture and looked at the influence of the British Monarchy on their federal systems.

Big C was then able to find the section on the New Zealander,  named Britten ironically, who hand built his own motorcycles and had won many international titles. Here he is with the Britten motorcycle:

We assume that this may inspire many construction projects for Big C in his future.  

Both boys investigated the many hands on and interactive displays. It reminded us of the many museums in Ottawa that we have frequented over the years.

We got a photo outside the Madagascar exhibit:

Learned about border control and he need to keep out invasive species:

Strolled through the caving exhibit outside:

And finished off with the main attraction (according to grandpa) - the giant squid. The one on the ceiling represented a creature from millions of years ago

But this beauty was caught on an Antarctic fishing expedition and then preserved for the scientific community. It is 4.5m in length and pretty impressive.

Thanks for the suggestion grandpa. It was an awesome way to spend the day.