From our Museum
By Rebecca Cox.
The Museum has slowly seen the return of our visitors following on from Cyclone Gabrielle. It is nice to hear the different accents from our overseas visitors who are loving the hospitality of our local businesses. We hear it all the time that Whitianga is a gorgeous place and a piece of paradise!! But of course we all know this already and finally the word is slowly getting out pass SH25/25A! Don’t let the scenic drive put you off – visit us soon!
We have been lucky to host some amazing groups recently – school groups on camp and a group of young individuals on a break from Auckland. If you have a group that would like to visit us please just give us a call – we would be more than happy to arrange a guided tour which adds the Museum experience.
The team here have been busy beavering away on two new exhibitions that will be open from Thursday 6 April 2023. Both exhibitions will be open until the end of May/beginning of June 2023.
The new exhibition in the local history space will be a chance for those budding photographers to get up close and personal with vintage and not so vintage cameras – the 1970’s isn’t vintage surely??? It is also a chance for some of our photographic collection to be on exhibit for the first time too. As usual, in all that we do, we like to create hands-on interaction. So, we are creating a selfie spot! Make sure when you visit you bring your own camera along and figure out how to turn it to black and white mode first!
The second one is our annual ANZAC exhibition. This year we are looking at ‘ANZACs at Home’ – the Home Guard and how those left at home contributed to the war effort. We will also have our wall of remembrance to honour those that gave their life to keep us safe. We will be closed on ANZAC Day but open on Monday 24 April.
Museum Gift Shop: One last thing; are you are aware that the Museum has a gift shop? A lot of people are not aware. So next time you are thinking of buying a gift for someone else or just your self please come and see us. We have books, homewares, t-shirts, hats and much much more!
The Museum and the gift shop are open Monday to Saturday 10am to 3pm (last admission 2:15pm).
See you all soon.
Becs
Rebecca Cox is the Manager of the Mercury Bay Museum