The Museum of New Zealand

THE MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND

TE PAPA TONGAREWA

By J. H. Turagasau

Wellington is not as big as Auckland city. It is possible to do pretty much all - or at least most - of the usual tourist attractions in one day and on foot. We know this to be the case because that was precisely what we did last Friday.

The journey down to Wellington took approximately half an hour by train. It was my first ride in a train, unlike the ones' we used to ride back in Fiji. Our plan for the day was quite simple: go to the Te Papa Museum. We disembarked at the Wellington Train Station, had a brief from our guide, Major Nick, on the sites, attractions and directions that we went through that day.

Our first stop was at the New Zealand Archives where we get to see the document of the Treaty of Waitangi. The documents tracing New Zealand's path to independent nationhood are proudly displayed to visitors in the Constitution Room. Here, in the centre are the nine documents which together form the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of modern New Zealand.

On departing the Archives, we headed towards the parliament grounds where we get see a glimpse of the Beehive. It is one of the state of the art buildings in New Zealand. From there we headed towards the street of Wellington passing a memorial which is dedicated to the New Zealand fallen soldiers of World War I and World War II. Along Lambton Quay we came across the Cable Car Lane which runs through the Botanical gardens.

The journey on Lambton Quay brought us to Plimmers Steps sighting the statue of John Plimmer and his dog (Fritz). John Plimmer is well known in New Zealand as the Father of Wellington. Later, we crossed Lambton Quay towards The Old Bank Arcade, took an escalator to visit Plimmers Ark - the boat (Inconstant) John Plimmer purchased before turning it into a warehouse.

We went through food malls, series of streets and intersections before reaching the Te Papa Tongarewa. On crossing the bridge towards the museum, we took time to observe a statue of Kupe and his wife. They are believed to be the first people to sight New Zealand.

Te Papa is, without doubt, one of the best museums I have been to. While a lot of the exhibits are kept behind glass, there are many