Revisiting Canterbury Museum

It has been decades since I visited the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch. Both the museum and I have had our share of adventures in the interim. I had memories of certain exhibits but expected some changes. There have been repurposing of spaces and renovations, of course.

It is still free (for the most part), a good thing. I was keen to revisit the old Christchurch Street replica. The horse and carriage are no longer there. Instead there is a horse designed to be 'resistent' to parents putting their children on it, which they do. No carriage. Charm considerably lessened. Most of the shops I remembered where still there. I know a lot more about Christchurch history and household items of the 19th century, both in NZ and France so it was interesting to compare. 

I especially liked the  plates and was able to look at the old rifle section with a bit of experience from seeing similar ones in France.

Somehow I didn't notice much in terms of paleontology and prehistory such as all the moas and fossils. Maybe they moved them or reduced the size of the exhibits. 

They had a temporary exhibition about one of Chrichurch's important past photographic studios. No doubt some visitors may have recognised themselves. I was more interested in a photo that showed High Street around the time of my late childhood and adolescence.

You can meet animals from all over the world in Fur, Fangs and Feathers. While I thought the exhibits were of very good quality I wondered what the point was in displaying stuffed animals from other parts of the world. I don't think we ever had lions and bears here in our breakaway from Gondwanaland. Quite a lot of space is given over to this. I would rather have seen more on NZ natural history. Perhaps this is only a semi-permanent exhibit?

 However, there are some of the tried and true exhibits I remember from my childhood STILL on display. They are timeless. Some joker had put a toy Christmas gnome in one of the exhibits. Rather incongruous and jarring so I couldn't really take a photo of the display.

The geology bits are rather shoved to one side and look like an after thought though quite interesting in view of the seismic activity Christchurch has been subjected to in the past 11 years.

A great deal of space was given over to a rather odd exhibition by a photographer with an odd bent for the bizarre and somewhat deranged. it was set up so that visitors could insert themselves into the scene and take pictures of themselves. I didn't though I imagine some visitors would enjoy this - Isolation Hotel is a multidisciplinary work combining photography, performance, installation and set design. Heather Straka, an Auckland-based artist, has recreated the look and feel of a 1930s German hotel foyer, once opulent and now run-down. I found it, again, rather incongruous inside the museum, taking up such a lot of space too. It's temporary so I don't know what will go back in its place.

I enjoyed the display of period furniture.It doesn't have much that is truly old though. Most is barely 100 years old. I could recognise household items (non-furniture) my grandmother had.

It was good to see the costume section with day-wear and evening-wear as well as military and clergical dress.

Around a corner I was surprised to come across an excellent exhibit on what it was like to have your photo taken in Victorian and Edwardian times. Nicely dressed display with genuine artifacts.

No doubt I will pop back to the museum another time to see if they have moved things around and brought out new/old bits from storage. It's an imimate place full of interesting info and things to see. It doesn't have to be impressive to be enjoyable.