Canterbury Museum

My friend PJ and I went to the Canterbury Museum yesterday. Quite a lot of it was dedicated to Maori culture, art, and tools, although there were several other, smaller exhibits. Here's a carved Maori figure. The eyes are paua shell (abalone), which is quite common both in Maori culture and Kiwi tourist trinkets.

Here's a canoe, or a waka. This one is small, mostly for lakes and rivers. Larger waka were used for the oceans, sometimes with an outrigger or another waka attached for balance.

Waka paddles.

Fish hooks. We've talked about these quite a bit in my Maori class. The C-shaped ones are meant to rotate as the fish bites and swims away, so that the fish effectively catches itself. They would put multiple fish hooks on a mobile-like structure with a sinker and catch multiple fish per line. They used a ton of different ways to catch fish, depending on the kind- you can see a bit of a net with a sinker on the right.

After contact with Europeans, Maori continued to used traditional methods for catching fish, but they adopted European materials. These are fish hooks of the same design, only made from nails. The lecturer for my class saw it as evidence that Maori culture was adaptable, rather than as a loss of traditional ways.

Early Maori also hunted the moa bird, but it's extinct now. It's a big, flightless bird that I think looks a lot like an ostrich.

Carved Maori flutes. They're really pretty, wish the picture did justice. We had a different lecturer for my class that played some for us- it was pretty sweet!

Maori jewelry.

Carved figures from the walls of a Maori building. I think the plaque said it was from a marae, which is a traditional meeting place. Hopefully more about that later, my class is going on a field trip to visit one, although there won't be any more pictures, I'm afraid- we're going to learn about their culture, not to be tourists, so we've been asked not to take any pictures.

PJ rubbing noses with a carved figure that used to be a support post inside a marae. Rubbing noses is a traditional Maori way of greeting, in remembrance of the way they believed human life began. The story goes that the god Tane created Hineahuone, the first woman, and breathed into her nose to give her life.

A few other random pictures of our adventures. There was a house completely decorated with paua shells, it was pretty bizarre.

The picture you've all been waiting for- a kiwi bird.

Penguins at the Antarctic exhibit.

A random giant bike?

In other news, I'm headed to Australia this afternoon. No big deal, you know :) I'll be in a place called Surfers' Paradise, on the Gold Coast, which you have to admit sounds pretty amazing!