Tyrannosaurs at Te Papa

Te Papa has been visited by a family of giant dinosaurs this summer. Tyrannosaurs - Meet the Family is a temporary exhibition that gives us glimpse of a world that existed millions of years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the land and life as we know it was unimaginable.

Tyrannosaurs introduces us to various members of the family with a mixture of actual fossilised samples and casts of dinosaur skeletons. The multimedia display of dinosaurs romping up and down Wellington's waterfront was a bit strange, but it led to a room where a life-size replica of Scotty the Tyrannosaurus Rex rightfully took pride of place. If you look to the far wall, you can see Scotty's shadow changing as he 'runs away' from something.

A life-size replica of Scotty the Tyrannosaurus Rex

The exhibit is really well curated. The displays are well spaced and the information panels include some really good leading questions for learners. Although the content is probably most suited to children with a reading age of 10-12 years, the tempting touch displays and multimedia interactivity means that even younger children will gain a lot of enjoyment from it. I bumped into my 6 year old nephew, who was on his third visit and proudly showed me around his favourite parts of the exhibition.

The Tyrannosaurs leave Te Papa after next weekend so visit them while you can.

Let them eat cake

Let them eat cake! How's that for a title? My second Wellington on a Plate event today promised all the ingredients of a fine outing for ladies who lunch. (Ooh, that's us!) The setting was Colonial Cottage Museum, the site of Wellington's oldest original cottage.

We began with a standing high tea provided by Martha's Pantry. Take a look at the menu so see what we indulged in.

High tea menu

As always, food made by Martha's meets the "you only have one opportunity to impress so use it well" high tea rule. Each bite sized portion on the three tiers offered a different, tantalising flavour. The lemon curd on the tiny scones was some of the best I have tasted. Their lovely hostess circulated among the tables, serving tea and coffee and making conversation with the guests.

Martha's Pantry high tea

To be honest, I'm not sure how well the standing high tea concept works. Sure, the food is the same and you still work through the tiers from bottom to top but it didn't seem to be the same high tea experience that you'd get when seated around a beautifully set table.

After high tea, we had a tour of Colonial Cottage and gardens. We learned about the Wallis family who built and lived in the cottage upon their arrival in Wellington during the 1830s. Some parts of the cottage have been restored and others seemed to be in the process of refurbishment. Pieces of furniture had been reupholstered and others added to replicate similar period items.

Not so easy to cook or bake on this stove

There's a good reason why I don't iron.
There's no way I would have even considered it in the 1830s!

No modern comforts in this outhouse

At $75, this was a pricey event for just 1.5 hours. It didn't seem very well planned and I wondered about how prepared the venue was to host several groups of guests on one day, given the appearance of the facilities and grounds. I didn't come away with the WOW feeling that I usually get at Wellington on a Plate events. There was very little cake (and no reference to cake at all), other than a teeny tiny cupcake on the top tier of high tea. While the food was impeccable, as always, I'd give this particular event a miss in future and go directly to Martha's Pantry for high tea instead. It certainly would have been better value.

Warhol: Immortal at Te Papa

Warhol: Immortal is a new exhibition at Te Papa featuring the work of pop artist Andy Warhol. On Thursday night, we had a guided tour with the exhibition's curator, Sarah Farrar. Sarah is obviously both passionate and knowledgeable about Warhol's work and her enthusiasm was contagious. It was great to be able to revisit the exhibition after the guided tour and take a closer look at the art works in more detail.

Warhol's early works in the form of commercial art resemble something akin to graphic design today. The exhibition is mostly made up of portraits and self-portraits, which exemplifies Warhol's fascination with people. There are also video screen tests and art works made of visitors to his studio, The Factory. You can even make your own screen test, if you're that way inclined. (If you're not familiar with The Factory, Factory Girl (2006) with Guy Pearce playing Warhol is somewhere to start.)

The most notably different art work in this exhibition comes in the form of silver helium clouds floating about in a room covered with cow wallpaper. Despite how it sounds, it's actually quite delightful! Warhol's blacklit Last Supper was also quite stunning.

Most of the works are on loan from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania so this is not a permanent exhibition. If you're interested in learning about something a bit different, check out Warhol: Immortal, which is on at Te Papa until 25 August. (Admission charges apply.) You'll discover there is so much more to Andy Warhol than Campbell's Soup Cans and Marilyn Monroe portraits.

Terracotta Warriors of Qin

I went to see the Terracotta Warriors of Qin (pronounced "Chin") today. This exhibition is a private collection of original artifacts from the Qin dynasty (221BC-206BC) and 43 replicas of the Terracotta Army. The remains of this army were discovered in March 1974 by two Chinese farmers who were digging a well and stumbled upon some terracotta ruins. These were the first of three pits containing the Terracotta Army, including over 8,000 soldiers and 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.

The original warriors were built to protect the tomb of the first emperor of unified China, Qin Shi Huang (259BC-210BC). He came to power when he was just 13 and achieved a lot to unify the seven states of China during his short, somewhat tyrannical reign. He also created a common currency, some laws, roads, among other things. Many original coins (round with a square hole in them) were on display, along with original swords, daggers, and artifacts from the time.

Here are some facts I learned from my visit today:

• each replica warrior weighs approximately 180kg
• the terracotta horse replica weighs 200kg
• combined, the 43 warriors on display weighs a massive 10,000kg. Tests had to be carried out on the room (upstairs in the St James Theatre in Wellington) to ensure the floor was strong enough to hold the exhibition.
• each replica was handmade by artesans at a Chinese museum.

The original warriors were coated with a lacquer finish then painted in quite garish colours. It appears that the army made its own uniforms, so colour and style varied greatly, even among the terracotta warriors. Upon contact with air, the lacquer quickly disintegrated, removing the paint and revealing the original terracotta underneath. Here are some recreations of what the ancient paint jobs might have looked like:

The warrior replicas and horse were lined up in formation. The scene was impressive enough with only 43 warriors, let alone imagining more than 8000!

Once again, I didn't have my camera with me, so these photos were taken on my trusty phone, which explains why the quality varies. I think it will be quite some time before I'll be able to see the real Terracotta Army in China. In the meantime, I can highly recommend checking out the replicas while they are on show in Wellington (until the end of February 2009).

Oh, and on the way out, there was a small table with a box saying that if you write your contact details on the back of your ticket that you will be in with a chance to win a trip for two to Hong Kong or Shanghai. Now, how could I resist a competition? ;-)

Colossal squid

We paid a visit to the colossal squid at Te Papa today. The exhibit starts with a short 3D movie depicting life under the sea, which attempts to put a live colossal squid in proportion with other ocean life. Despite reading all the stats, and seeing the squid for real, it's hard to conceive of something so massive (or even larger creatures) living in our waters. That's why I love astronomy (just to digress, slightly ...); the sheer scale and proportion of beings in space, as well as the distance between objects, helps put life on earth into perspective. We are mere 'blips' in the universe, and the rest of existence will continue regardless of whether we buy those shoes, see that movie, or spend an extra hour at work. The same goes for underwater life, although, to be honest, it's harder for me to conceive of the sheer enormity of life in the deep ocean.

It is not known why this squid held on so fiercely to the bait she grabbed, ultimately bringing her to the surface of the Antarctic ocean. The decompression she would have experienced during her ascent meant she wasn't going to survive and couldn't be returned to the sea. The ensuing opportunity for the world's squid experts threw up many challenges, and some are shown on a short video about the freezing, defrosting, and research processes.

This squid is a beauty, so to speak. Some stats I remember:

• her eye is the size of a soccer ball, with each lens the size of an orange and split in two
• her throat passes through her brain, so if she eats something too big, it could do some damage
• she was about 4.5 metres long and weighed 490kg, even though she is estimated to be only half the size of a fully-grown female colossal squid
• find out more here.
  

Merely a shadow of her former self now, I'd certainly recommend going to see this colossal squid, as she is the only one on display in the world. She had a lot of visitors today, due to it being a holiday with less-than-ideal weather. As with most exhibitions at Te Papa, there is free entry. Well worth a visit!