Visiting the Auckland Maritime Museum...

 It has been so busy that I haven't had time to blog in a while but this weekend I got to take my class to the Auckland Maritime Museum which is located in Downtown Auckland and a lot more to see than when I first went there with my family a few years ago.

The Museum itself is free entry to Aucklanders with a handy carpark nearby and it has themed buildings to walk through and view the various artefacts that are on show for the public. I had some fave places that I enjoyed viewing and it was the initial Pasifika arena with a historical look at some of the Pasifika water vessels being that our (Pacific) ancestors were skilled navigators was neat to view.

My second fave area was to look for the boat replica that both my parents are used to migrate to NZ back in the 1950s-60s called the Tofua and to even find out that one of my groups inlaws had been named after the boat. There was also a neat holiday bach that showed some of the household products that were prominently used in the 1960 and 70s.

It was interesting to also be reminded about there being a Tahitian high priest named Tupaia from Ra'iatea who had accompanied Capt Cook on his 1768 travels to "discover" NZ. Tupaia was noted as being an expert geographer, astronomer and in navigation by Cook's scientific expert Banks. Tupaia could already map 130 islands that he assisted Capt Cook in mapping and learning about and the NZ Maori held Tupaia in high esteem.

This then acts as confirmation that Pacifics ancestral peoples had long been sailing throughout the Pacific and already "discovered" all of the large island groups, many of which were already inhabited and it was only in the 1700s that the Europeans were able to find them.

There was so much to see and be reminded of and a neat day out with the class...