Around the World In: Awesome Museums

Everyone loves a good museum, right? These are some of my favourites from around the world.

1. The Natural History Museum, London

The British Museum might be the most visited museum in London, but the Natural History Museum is my favourite. It helped to foster my childhood love of the natural world and remains a brilliant place to this day.

Best visited later in the afternoon and during the week when there are less people around, especially if you want to see the famous Dinosaur Gallery.

2. National Museum of Ireland, Dublin

There's a few branches of this wonderful museum and I'd recommend the archaeology building and the slightly creepy Dead Zoo for a start. The archaeology section has some amazingly well preserved bog bodies that are worth checking out so long as you're not squeamish.

And if you can cope with vast cabinets of stuffed animals staring down at you, the Dead Zoo is amazing. Creepy, but amazing.

3. Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau

Situated just across the river from Canada's lovely capital city, Ottawa, this sprawling museum is an amazing introduction to the history of Canada, from the people of the First Nations all the way through to the present. Hoping to revisit this when I head back to Canada in the summer.

4. Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington

New Zealand's national museum is a deceptively huge place and it's easy to lose a day in here without really scratching the surface of the collection. Highlights include a gallery charting the changes in the wildlife of the islands and a small collection of musical instruments, both traditional Maori and Pacific Island and some more familiar to Europeans.

 

5. The Louvre, Paris

Probably the most famous museum in France and to date the only one I've visited. Home of the Mona Lisa among numerous other amazing artworks. And if you're into the faux-conspiracy of Dan Brown's books, the Louvre is big in that too.

What are your favourite museums? Got any unusual collections to share? Why not let us know in the comments below.

Basement Cat

We began our day in Wellington with a wander along the bay which was windy to put it mildly. The news later told us it had been gusting at 100kmh during the day which would explain why sometimes we couldn't actually walk.

Bags were dumped in the car and then we headed for Te Papa Tongarewa, which is the national museum of New Zealand. We'd expected just to spend the morning there but it was so big and so awesome we actually spent the whole day wandering round it.

There was an amazing section about Maori history and culture, including some awesome musical instruments and the history of the haka used by the All Blacks. There was also a bit about more recent migrants to New Zealand. Included in a video in this section was a clip about someone from Laceby and then some bits of Grimsby and Cleethorpes, including Ernie Beckett's fish and chips. Think I got some funny looks from the school group behind us when I started giggling about that. Go all the way to New Zealand and find pictures of home. According to the video, fish and chips was introduced to NZ by people from Grimsby. Not sure how true that is, but it made us smile.

We didn't finish at the museum till late in the afternoon. Headed over to Weta Workshop meaning to have epic geekery about Lord of the Rings but couldn't find anywhere to park. This was horribly disappointing, but given everything else we managed to do, it's not so bad.

Weta bypassed, we headed out of Wellington, stopping briefly at a little suburb called Whitby on the way (see this post for reason). We only stopped for a couple of minutes because it was stupidly windy and more than a bit cold and wet.

The drive up to Wanganui was uneventful. Dark, wet, windy, but uneventful. Nice comfy hostel at the end of it though. Hurray. There was also a cat called Candy who attached itself to people and tried to sneak into the bedroom when you weren't looking. We decided it was Basement Cat. Just got to find Ceiling Cat now.

"It was fine till I fell out the boat"

Motueka hasn't got a lot going for it, but the hostel was nice. We started off with a drive to Kaiteriteri, 20 minutes up the road. The sat-nav, we have discovered, really can't pronounce Maori place names. It is hilarious.

We claimed part of the beach at Kaiteriteri for New Grimsby, complete with flag. We're that cool.

We were actually in Kaiteriteri for kayaking. The last time I went kayaking, which was getting on for 15 years ago, I rammed myself repeatedly back onto the beach and had to be towed off by the instructor. We hoped this was going to be better.

Sophie, our guide, was brilliant. Amy ended up in the kayak with her while Claire and I went in the other. Which was fine until we discovered that the steering pedals weren't quite in the right place and we couldn't really turn properly. Claire also couldn't see past my head so my yelling "there's a rock, TURN!" wasn't helpful.

Anyways, it turned into Amy and the guide paddling serenely along and me and Claire paddling along in a desperate zig-zag behind them. And then the wind started to get up. Paddle harder!

A couple of hours later, having managed to paddle as far as Split Apple Rock as planned, we headed back to the beach. Everyone had acquired aches and pains of some description - blisters on thumbs comes to mind. Landing was fine, managed to paddle onto the beach. And then I stood up to get out of the boat. And a bloody big wave hit the back of the boat. Boat wobbled, I lost my balance and then I was on my arse in the sea. Sodden. Just next to that little boat ramp there:

As I'd got up, Claire in the back had started to take off her spray skirt, so of course when the wave came, she also got soaked. So there's the two of us, soaked and cold and Amy standing on the beach having hysterics. We sent her to get the car while we squelched to the nearest loos. Ugh. Other than that, kayaking was great.

Back in nice dry clothes, we raided the tiny shop for hot chocolate and headed off on the afternoon drive to Picton.

Stopped off at Pelorus Bridge on the way back. Sadly, there were no dwarves, hobbits or lovely lake-men. There was however this sign, which made us giggle.

Then we took a minor detour and went down the Queen Charlotte Drive from Havelock into Picton along the edge of the Marlborough Sounds. Such a beautiful drive, although Claire did have to take over the driving at one point because sitting in the back round all the twists and turns was making her ill.

The ferry was uneventful save for Claire's expected seasickness.

Wellington was windy. Very very windy. Lugging bags back from the car in that was not fun. Also, the hostel was very much an old Travelodge type place that'd been converted. Which meant an en suite bathroom. YAY!