21st Dec day 67 Te Papa and Dreamworks

.We left straight after breakfast to get the bus down into the waterfront area of Wellington, we were on our way to Te Papa which is the museum here.

It hosts so many different displays in an enormous building over 6 floors but we particularly wanted to be there for when it opened at 10am, in order to see the Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings fame) exhibition commemorating the First World War struggle for Anzac Cove in Turkey by the NZ and Australian troops.

Immediately you enter the display you are overwhelmed, it's only half lit, there is the sound of gunfire and this superb 12' high life-like model of Sgt Richard Ware as he falls over whilst firing. There 8 of these incredible models which are so realistic, even down to body hair. They bring the whole experience to life. This commemoration lives because it tells of the terrible experience for NZ soldiers but through the lens of the 8 individuals.

The exhibition uses some very clever effects and displays but also a lot of factual information from the diaries of those involved in the action and their letters to and from home. But it is the personal accounts of the 8 lives that draws you in and moves you emotionally. I found this reproduction of Dr Fenwick one of the most moving. His expression shows his despair at the futile loss of, and damage to, young lives. I should think being a Dr in a war zone must be horrendous as you studied and practiced in order to protect and save lives.

This model clearly shows the strength and fitness of Private Jack Dunn who, despite being an accomplished and brave soldier was sentenced to death for falling asleep on duty. He was given a reprieve but disappeared in the height of the battle, so is presumed dead. Because of the terrible damage especially by grenades and shrapnel it was impossible to identify many of the casualties.

This is the only woman in the exhibition her name was Nurse Lottie Le Gallais, she signed up in order to serve near to here brother, who had left home some months previously. She wrote to him regularly but only discovered over 4 months after he had been killed that he was dead, when her letters were returned. 

The whole Gallipoli campaign that this exhibition seeks to explain 100 years on was a disaster and 83% of the NZ troops deployed there were either killed or injured. That's a very high price to pay for a war on the other side of the world, but such was the loyalty of these Commonwealth soldiers that they readily volunteered. It was the first time Maoris had been part of the forces which is exceptional given the terrible treatment they had recently suffered at the hands of the British in the previous generation. 

Do you remember earlier this year the shocking picture of a 3 yr old washed up on a Mediterranean beach? Despite the fact that multitudes of babies, toddlers and young children had died, been injured and traumatised by the Syrian atrocities that single picture helped us to better understand the ongoing horrors for those poor refugees. It's because we can't relate to 1,000,000 refugees coming to Europe this year, it's just too big a problem that we can't get our minds around, but 1 life and bereft family is within our capabilities. And that's what this exhibition achieved.

All 3 of us were rung out by the time we left that part of the museum 3 hours later. It was good to go for lunch and talk through what we had seen and experienced in order to unwind. 

Thankfully one of the other exhibitions was Dreamworks so we viewed that after lunch. It was amazing to see how films like Shrek, Madagascar and Wallace and Grommit were made.

As part of Dreamworks activities the children could use a great computer package to make their own animation which was emailed to them at home. Nicholas decided to do one of a rocket just managing to escape from a planet before it exploded, here it is. Each child had no more than 10 mins so this is impressive, even with some help from his Dad.

We viewed other displays including this a Teremoe, which is a Moari war canoe, built sometime between 1820-1840 and carved from a single tree trunk, it's magnificent.

Before we left we went onto the roof terrace to enjoy a windswept view of Wellington's beautiful Harbour.

We decided to eat before we got the bus home as it was getting late, we enjoyed a yummy Chinese in a very attractive restaurant.