Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

With only a few hours in Wellington I decided to visit arguably its main tourist attraction, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Entry is free and the museum has several floors with exploration spaces aimed more at a younger audience and more traditional exhibits.

I only had a few hours in Wellington and spent much of it at the national museum. The place spans several floors with a range of exhibits of New Zealand culture, heritage along with natural history. The natural history and science exhibits are on the ground floor near the entrance. A special exhibit they have is a rare, preserved giant squid. Not as giant as I imagined. Walked into the adjacent area an overheard a school class being taught about the geology of New Zealand. But some of it was terribly wrong! The person presenting either wasn’t reading from the script properly or some of the basics need to be gone over.

I moved onto the museums wide range of art exhibits.

In addition to art a large portion of the museum space was dedicated to New Zealand and Pacific Islander’s culture and heritage.

It’s quite rightly probably the top attraction of the city and a great place to visit, with view of the harbour, city and mountains from the front door. Worth a few hours of your time and entrance is free.