New Zealand, Auckland ( War Memorial and Maritime Museum)

The Auckland Museum
The Auckland (War Memorial) Museum is actually a combination of a natural history museum and a museum focused on New Zealand's participation in WWI and WWII. Really interesting.

The lowest floor focused on the Maori culture and Pacific Island cultures and the creatures unique to New Zealand.  We spent most of our time on upper levels: memorial galleries about WWI and WWII. There was a lot of good information and there was a mock up so you could experience "trench" warfare. I guess we didn't take any photos here, we just enjoyed it. We probably spent 3 hours there.

There was also a fairly large area dedicated to Sir Peter Blake, a famous NZ yachtsman.  He won every significant bluewater race on the planet. He also won and successfully defended the biggest sailing prize of all, The America's Cup. He also slashed the record for the fastest non-stop circumnavigation of the world under sail. He then turned his focus to protecting the environment. Unfortunately, he was killed while in the Amazon trying to protect his crew from pirates in 2001.

The Maritime Museum
It turned out the Maritime Museum was a 5 minute walk from our hotel so very easy! This is New Zealand's seafaring story beginning with the first Polynesian explorers to arrive by canoe in the 1300s. A few centuries later came the Europeans.

In this museum we found a couple of old images of interest. This is Queen Street Wharf circa 1901. What a difference. You can see the Ferry Building on the left in the distance.

We were looking at the same building but looking at it from the end. 

Another very interesting image: A drawing of Batavia (Jakarta) circa 1627. A Dutch man named Janszoon Tasman is credited with "discovering" Tasmania and New Zealand. He was the first known European explorer to reach Tasmania and New Zealand. He became a member of the Council of Batavia (Jakarta). He died at 56 owning 288 acres of land in Batavia. He is best known for his voyages in 1642 and 1644 for the Dutch East Indies Co.  

This is an anchor from the HMS Bounty. About three weeks after leaving Tahiti in December 1781, a mutiny took over the ship captained by Lt. William Bligh. The crew set Bligh and 18 others adrift in an open ship's boat and sailed away. A number of the mutineers settled on Pitcairn Island where they burned the Bounty to hide their location. This anchor was abandoned in Tahiti (it didn't say why). It was discovered in 1935. An identical anchor was found off Pitcairn Island in 1957. Both are made of iron and are long-shafted with straight arms and flukes. One of the flukes is missing on this anchor. The Bounty originally had 5 anchors.

Lots of boats old and new! Really nice museum.

We spent some time at a Starbucks to fulfill a promise. A friend had asked me to purchase a ceramic Starbucks mug for her. She collects them from all over. We had to message her back and forth a few times as we weren't sure whether she wanted an "Auckland" mug or a "New Zealand" mug and which size. We worked it out eventually. This was a very crowded place! This is the queue to pick up orders. It was this long most of the time we were there!