Pacific Festival Rocks Te Papa

Te Papa had been transformed this Labour weekend; into a bright beacon of colour and music from the Pacific. We approached the entrance and gasped at the colourful ribbon, stars and banners hanging from the main foyer. Charlotte laughed hysterically at this ‘full’ head of afro hair saying, ‘He’s wearing a microphone on his head!’:

The new exhibition will run until September 2012 and from our first glimpses it is a stunning creation, including magnificent artwork, interactive media and wonderful hands-on activities for children too. Sophie loved dressing up and playing the drums, whilst Charlotte practiced threading and weaving.

Charlotte and I also played a wonderful board game; which followed the journey of the first Pacific people to New Zealand and made us appreciate what an incredible voyage it was.

This Labour weekend every corner of the museum has gone Pacific, with everything from traditional crafts and dancing to modern hip-hop. The girls watched in awe at the traditional dancing (and I got rather excited at all the bare skin – as did a few other ladies in the audience judging by the pink cheeks!).

We sat in the cafe and enjoyed a lovely lunch before heading outdoors to the beat of the hip-hop; which was pretty ‘hard-core’ but Charlotte liked it and had us all doing a dance in the dinosaur pit!