The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, branded and commonly known as Te Papa (officially translated as Our Place, but more correctly "The exhibition of treasures"), is the national museum of New Zealand.

It is located on the waterfront in Wellington in a striking $NZ300 million building of 36,000 square metres floor area. The museum also incorporates outdoor environments with caves, native bush and wetlands.

Te Papa opened on 14 February 1998 and achieved 1 million visitors within 5 months.

The building has not been without its controversial side. The siting of the nation's most important collection of historical artefacts at the water's edge on reclaimed land next to one of the world's most active earthquake faults has drawn no small amount of concern. There has been criticism of the 'sideshow' nature of some exhibits (primarily the Time Warp section in the basement. There was also criticism that some exhibits were not given due reverence - for example a major work by Colin McCahon juxtaposed with a 1950s refrigerator in a New Zealand culture exhibit.

In 2004 more space was devoted to exhibiting works from the New Zealand art collection.

Te Papa in fact consists of two buildings. In addition to the building on Cable Street, which is open to the public, there is also a building on the Basin Reserve end of Tory Street, where archives and the natural history collection are kept.

Trivia

• The site was previously occupied by a modern four-storey building. This was jacked off its foundations onto numerous rail bogies and transported 200 metres down and across the road to a new site, where it is now the Museum Hotel de Wheels.

• The museum's logo - a thumbprint - caused considerable controversy when it was publicised that its development had cost $300,000 - in reality the cost of the entire branding.

External links

Te Papa — Museum of New Zealand