Auckland Museum Marks Landmark Birthday This Sunday
How does New Zealand’s oldest Museum plan to celebrate its 150th birthday this Sunday (27th October)?
With a cake as big as Mt Everest and a man as big as a mountain.
Come along on Sunday and see Kiwi legend Sir Edmund Hillary cut an enormous seven foot-long Mt Everest cake in honour of
Auckland Museum’s sesquicentennial.
The day’s other events include behind the scenes tours, free balloons for children, birthday trails and lucky dips,
story telling and costumed characters.
Special guests include National Geographic photographer, Anne Keiser, who will give an illustrated talk on her work and
association with Sir Edmund Hillary, performances by India’s Nagaland State Dance Troupe and guided tours of the
Museum’s special exhibition, Sir Edmund Hillary: Everest and Beyond, by exhibition curator, Alexa Johnston.
Sir Edmund Hillary: Everest and Beyond, is a new exhibition charting the extraordinary achievements of our greatest
living New Zealander. Organised by Auckland Museum in association with National Geographic Society’s Explorers Hall, the
exhibition opens to the public on Friday 25 October.
For a full breakdown of Birthday events on Sunday 27 October, see the attached programme.
-ends-
- FOYER, GROUND FLOOR
- Birthday cake - giant Mt Everest Cake
- Cake cutting by Sir Edmund Hillary and colouring competition winner at 1.00pm.
- Balloons for kids on arrival
- Birthday trails for kids exploring the inside of the Museum.
- Big barrel of presents like a lucky dip for each child who completes the trail
- Floral artwork “150 years” to accompany cake
- SCAPA Jazz band (School of Performing Arts, University of Auckland)
- Nagaland State Dance Troupe 11.30am-12.00noon and 3.00pm-3.30pm
- NEW EDUCATION ROOM, GROUND FLOOR
- Anne Keiser talk at 10.30am
- Bill Sykes talk on Plants of the Himalayas at 12.00noon
- SIR EDMUND HILLARY: EVEREST AND BEYOND, GROUND FLOOR
- Gallery Tours by Alexa Johnston, Curator
- Bumble Bee costumed characters
- TREASURES AND TALES, FIRST FLOOR
- Storyteller Jo Lees tells Auckland Museum’s Birthday Story at 11.00am
- Kids can make their own Mini Prayer Flags from 10.00am-12.00noon and 1.30pm to 3.00pm
- Indian Pupeeteers 12.30pm-1.00pm and 2.00pm - 2.30pm
- MATAPUNA, FIRST FLOOR
- Websites on Hillary-related topics
- OCEANS GALLERY, FIRST FLOOR
- Rangoli Artist 11.30am-3.30pm
- BACK OF HOUSE
- Back of House tours “Behind the Scenes”. East door meeting point for continual tours from 11.00am to 4.00pm
- To Conservation, Photography, Library, Marine, Entomology, Land vertebrates, Botany and Applied arts office and
Textile store