The Auckland War Memorial Museum has it’s roots in the Auckland Museum, originally opened in 1852. It opened at it’s current location in 1929 following a world-wide architectural competition. An Auckland firm won the competition with a design inspired by the Parthenon. As it’s name implies, it opened both as a museum and a memorial to people lost in WW I.
In 1960 a large expansion was opened to house a memorial to those lost in WW II. It’s most recent expansion, completed in stages between 1994 and 2006, provided a 60% increase in floorspace. The museum is a massive, seven-story complex. It houses a large range of themed displays and it could take multiple days to view them.
We focused our afternoon at the museum on the display of Maori art and culture.
This museum has an extensive display of early Maori artifacts. These are door lintels from pre-contact Maori buildings which would have been carved with stone tools.
Lintels marked the doors of Chief’s houses or meeting houses and symbolized the threshold between the god of war on the outside and the god of peace on the inside.
This pou whakarae or stockade post was named Paretekohera after an important ancestor of an esteemed chief. It stood in defence of Omaunu, a fortified village on Lake Taupo in the early 19th century.
This pole was very distinctive.
The raised notches on this storehouse lintel reflects origins from the 18th century Te Rawheoro school of learning at Tolaga Bay just south of the far eastern tip of the North Island.
These are doorway surrounds.
The one on the left is from the Lake Rotorua area near Te Puia and represents a deified creator-ancestor of the local tribe.
The one on the right is a 17th century carving that stood at the entry of a large raised storehouse on a west coast bay north of Auckland.
This gateway is named Tiki after an ancestor of a tribe at Rotorua. It was carved in the 1830s as one of three entrances to a hilltop stockade fortified for an anticipated attack.
Te Toki a Tapiri is the last of the great waka taua or war canoes.
It was carved in Hawkes Bay around 1836 from a single totara log and it’s 25-metre hull could carry 100 warriors.
It served many ceremonial roles before being donated to the Auckland Museum in 1885.
The tauihu or bow piece is beautifully carved.
This view shows a bit of the inside of the canoe, as well as the backward facing figure on the tauihu.
This stern view accentuates the size of the 25-metre hull.
This side view of the taurapa or stern carving shows the helmsman’s seat.
This view of the taurapa shows the rear-facing figure, tongue fully extended!.
The gentleman on the left is Te Pokiha Taranuia a leading chief of the Arawa tribal confederation of Rotorua, also know as Major Fox for his commanding role in defending against internal disputes on the North Island in the 1860s and 1870s. He was also the owner of the building below. His companion was presumably his wife.
This pataka or raised storehouse is named Te Puawai o Te Arawa (The Flower of Te Awara). Te Pokiha commissioned famous carvers to complete it in the early 1870s to symbolize his status and power.
With an Uber back to the van, we’re off to the campground for our last home-cooked meal in Jucy.
Grampafacts 