• World Environment Day

    Wednesday, 5 June 2019

    For World Environment Day we will consider the possum, introduced to New Zealand for its fur in 1837. Possums really took to New Zealand conditions and have caused serious damage to both plants and birds in New Zealand since that time. We recently unearthed an interesting letter concerning a possum…

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  • The Fenton Agreement 1880-2030

    Friday, 24 November 2017

    1980 was a busy year for the City of Rotorua. It was the year that the city chose to celebrate its founding on 25 November 1880. The year-long centennial celebration kicked off in style in November 1979 when the Morrison Quartet briefly reunited for a special concert at the Rotorua…

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  • Celebrating our kārearea on World Falconry Day

    Thursday, 16 November 2017

    Amongst the air conditioning vents, turrets and tiles on the southern rooftop of Rotorua Museum is a very unusual item for such a space. In mid December 2013, after a short helicopter flight, a hackbox destined to become home to three very cute kārearea chicks was delivered to the roof…

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  • Big Red – New Zealand’s endangered Pōhutukawa

    Tuesday, 4 July 2017

    In 2003 Rotorua Museum opened their exhibition called Big Red – celebrating the pōhutukawa. It marked 11 years of Project Crimson, a community-based project to save the endangered tree. Back then the main dangers for the pōhutukawa were possums and humans. Today Project Crimson is 27 years old, and there…

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  • Tarawera Sausages

    Saturday, 10 June 2017

    The Tarawera eruption On 10 June 1886 at about 2am an eruption of great magnitude occurred in the Rotorua region. It was Mount Tarawera, just 24km from the town. The eruption lasted 6 hours and consisted of lightning, earthquakes and molten rocks which were thrown into the air along with…

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