Canterbury Museum

Guest blogger Mark The Canterbury Museum is one of those classic all-purpose museums, with a little bit of everything for all ages. Rooms full of glass cases filled with Maori artifacts, dioramas, stuffed birds, Victorian clothing, doll houses, and medals won by New Zealanders for everything from valor in the Great War to world speed records for 125cc motorcycles. Throw in a few rooms of hands-on exhibits on the environment, science, and a house decorated in Paua shells for the kids, and you’ve got a full day of fun.

We picked a special day to visit the museum, when NASA astronaut Don Pettit was visiting and giving a talk about his months living on the International Space Station and his many hours on space walks. Don also spoke about his several visits to Antarctica, linking those experiences under the umbrella of “Exploring the Frontiers”. The kids were most intrigued by his video clip of mixing peanut butter with honey and then “manipulating” the mixture with chop sticks in zero-gravity; imagine pulling a thick column of brown goo out of a tin and then having it slowly wobble about like a writhing slug. Mmmmmm...