Today and yesterday, the weather's made a turn for the worse, clouding over on Wednesday and then raining on Thursday afternoon. Yesterday I didn't really do much, just hung around at IEP reading my FHiNZ booklet and putting a mark next to the interesting farms. It's quite good now that I've been to all of the available IEP social events, because every time I go up to the office I meet someone I know. In particular, I've made friends a few Americans who are over here to work and travel; Matt, Jesse and Jennifer.
So today Simon and I went off to the Auckland Museum, really just to do something instead of sitting around all day. I didn't really expect much from it to be honest, but it turned out to be superb. The first surprise came when we had to hand in our bags and I read a sign, "You may take photographs in the museum". Usually it's strictly forbidden because of the fading that flash can cause to objects.
The museum was originally built as a war memorial after World War 1, but it now had three floors covering Maori culture, natural history and conflicts that Kiwis have been involved in. It's not one of those typical boring places though; there are loads of interactive demos and kiosks.
I must have taken about 50 photos throughout my visit, it was like being allowed to do something that you've been forbidden from doing for ages. I don't like using flash and it's not the most subtle thing to use in a museum, so I just opened up the aperture on my camera, dialled up the ISO and it worked fine.
I found the Maori section particularly interesting; it's amazing how intricate their carving is given the materials and equipment they used. The natural history section didn't grab me as much, but there was a small modern history room there, with displays on the last few decades. They even had a cabinet for 1990s kids, complete with a PlayStation! I guess that's what happens when you become an adult; people start collecting your outdated stuff and preserving it for future generations to smirk at.
