Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum [Day 7]

This museum is a wonderful tribute to outstanding sailing skill throughout the ages and how people first arrived in New Zealand.

From the arrival of the Maori and Polynesian, through the discovery of New Zealand by Europeans and migration, to New Zealand’s winning of the America’s Cup and a tribute to Sir Peter Blake. The museum boasts fascinating artefacts, interactive displays and an extensive coverage of New Zealand’s maritime history from past to present.

We went for the museum and cruise family pass combination, at $52, which gave us a one-hour Voyager Live heritage vessel sailing aboard the sailing scow, Ted Ashby.

We weren’t sure what to expect and have to say we were extremely impressed. The museum is located in the heart of Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour, on the corner of Quay and Hobson Streets. Set amongst numerous bars, restaurants and cafes the museum is in prime position on the waterfront. The displays were fascinating and left quite an emotive impression and feeling of awe. The early settlers and discoverers of New Zealand were remarkably skilled in navigation and very brave.

Charlotte and Sophie thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits and seeing various sailing vessels, learning about navigation, morse code and capturing the wind to sail. They listened and learned about how people came to New Zealand and how their journeys varied. They measured themselves against a life sized painting of a Blue Whale and learned about whaling. They admired paintings and watched snippets of documentaries.

They asked, ‘Why do people have to use the stars to find their way at sea?’ and ‘What does navigation mean?’ They came away with the beginnings of an appreciation of how amazing past and present sailors are.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the maritime museum and if we lived in Auckland we would definitely make return visits. Great stuff!

It was a great day, made all the more complete with a splendid lunch after our harbour sailing and a refreshing coffee after our tour of the museum.

On the way back to our holiday home accommodation in Browns Bay we stopped off for a game of mini-golf at Albany (again!). Well, there were two courses and the girls were determined to do the ‘black’ run! Sophie was chuffed to score a hole in one to match up with Charlotte, who’d scored a hole in one on the green course the day before. Another fabulous day 🙂