The Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum is New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

's premier maritime museum. It is located on Hobson Wharf Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, adjacent to Viaduct Harbour. It houses exhibitions spanning New Zealands maritime history from the first polynesian

Polynesians

The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...

 explorers to modern day triumphs at the America's Cup

America's Cup

The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...

.

Its Maori name is 'Te Huiteanaui-A-Tangaroa' - holder of the treasures of Tangaroa

Tangaroa

In Māori mythology, Tangaroa is one of the great gods, the god of the sea. He is a son of Ranginui and Papatuanuku, Sky and Earth. After he joins his brothers Rongo, Tūmatauenga, Haumia, and Tane in the forcible separation of their parents, he is attacked by his brother Tawhirimatea, the god of...

 (the Sea God).

Collections

The museum cares for a number of collections and permanent exhibitions (as of 2006):

Main exhibitions, concentrating on: Polynesian, Maori vessels and navigation European voyages of discovery Settlement and immigration Early coastal trading Whaling and sealing Modern commercial shipping Lifeboat, pilotage and coastguard services Navigation and marine surveying Maritime art and crafts Recreation and sporting maritime activities Maritime trades Harbour and port history

Collections, documentation: New Zealand Maritime Index - documents about maritime topics New Zealand Maritime Record - photos and articles about NZ ships Northern Steamship Company - website about the historical company Bill Laxon Maritime Library - photos, charts and other documents Lighthouses in New Zealand - documentation about lighthouse topics New Zealand Maritime Firsts - achievements of NZ in maritime areas Geneaology Documentation - immigration shipping lists, documents Art collections (maritime paintings): Edmiston Collection Fraser Collection

Seaworthy ships

In addition to a number of reconstructed or preserved ships in the building itself, the museum also owns a number of vessels that are normally berthed outside of the museum:

Breeze, 1982 reproduction of a brigantine Brigantine In sailing, a brigantine or hermaphrodite brig is a vessel with two masts, only the forward of which is square rigged.-Origins of the term:...  for NZ coastal trade Puke, late 19th century steam engine tender Ship's tender A ship's tender, usually referred to as a tender, is a boat, or a larger ship used to service a ship, generally by transporting people and/or supplies to and from shore or another ship...  for coastal and river logging trade

Rapaki, 1926 floating steam crane Crane vessel A crane vessel, crane ship or floating crane is a ship with a crane specialized in lifting heavy loads. The largest crane vessels are used for offshore construction. Conventional monohulls are used, but the largest crane vessels are often catamaran or semi-submersible types as they have increased... , built in Scotland for the Lyttelton Harbour Board Lyttelton, New Zealand Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour close to Banks Peninsula, a suburb of Christchurch on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand.... Ted Ashby, 1993 reproduction of ketch Ketch A ketch is a sailing craft with two masts: a main mast, and a shorter mizzen mast abaft of the main mast, but forward of the rudder post. Both masts are rigged mainly fore-and-aft. From one to three jibs may be carried forward of the main mast when going to windward... -rigged scow Scow A scow, in the original sense, is a flat-bottomed boat with a blunt bow, often used to haul bulk freight; cf. barge. The etymology of the word is from the Dutch schouwe, meaning such a boat.-Sailing scows:...  typical, late 19th century northern NZ. Ted Ashby has public sailings every day except Monday.

All except Rapaki can be hired from the museums for sailing excursions or functions. Rapaki can be entered and explored during normal museum visits. Some personnel from the Royal New Zealand Navy

Royal New Zealand Navy

The Royal New Zealand Navy is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force...

 are also at times seconded to the museum to assist with maintenance of the ships and exhibition objects.

Extension

A NZ$ 8 million extension to the northern end of the museum was built in the late 2000s, to house a permanent exhibition about Sir Peter Blake

Peter Blake (yachtsman)

Sir Peter James Blake, KBE was a New Zealand yachtsman who won the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Jules Verne Trophy – setting the fastest time around the world of 74 days 22 hours 17 minutes 22 seconds on catamaran Enza, and led his country to successive victories in the America’s Cup...

, including the original NZL 32

NZL 32

NZL-32 or Black Magic, is an International Americas Cup Class yacht that won the 1995 America's Cup. She beat the American defender Young America in a 5-0 victory off San Diego, California.-History:...

(Black Magic). The exhibition will be called Blue Water, Black Magic. This has since been opened.

External links

• New Zealand National Maritime Museum (museum homepage)