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What to see
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Canterbury Museum is a treasure trove of riches. Its collections have engaged and delighted visitors from all over the world for more than 130 years. |
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Our land and animals
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Strange animals in a strange land
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Be blown away by Living Canterbury’s howling nor’ west wind and marvel at the lost world of the iconic kiwi and the extinct moa. |
Kotuku (white heron)
Egretta alba modesta
The only known kotuku breeding colony in New Zealand is near Okarito Lagoon, South Westland. Visit the Bird Hall dioramas and see kotuku and many other native species of birds. |
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The most spectacular of New Zealand’s fossil crabs, Tumidocarcinus giganteus is about 12 million years old. This fossil can be viewed in the geololgy display. |
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Design in New Zealand
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A material world
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Slip into a glamorous world of morning, afternoon and evening dresses with New Zealand’s premier costume collection. From tweed to taffeta, frocks to flying suits, wigs to waistcoats, the magnificent 1870 Mountfort Gallery is style all the way. |
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The colonial lady preferred English-made fashion. These ball dresses were made in London and worn by women in provincial Canterbury. |
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Antarctica
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Frozen history
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Shiver as you peer into the huts of the first Antarctic explorers and marvel at their heroic adventures in the last great wilderness. Lifelike scenes of huskies at work, Emperor penguins under ice cliffs and a mother seal and her pup add to the icy atmosphere. |
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When you visit the Antarctic Gallery don't miss the Emperor penguins! Emperor penguins are the largest living penguins weighing up to 45 kilograms. |
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Roald Amundsen used this pocket knife to sharpen the bamboo stake that was planted at the South Pole to fly the Norwegian flag on 17 December 1911. |
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Windows on the world
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Globe trotting
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From the West, the eccentricities of a Victorian Museum crammed with exotic and bizarre artefacts. From the East, the Asian Gallery is home to the swords of the Samurai and the treasures of emperors. |
Chinese snuff bottles are among the most delicate, intricate and difficult to produce Chinese art objects.
“Snuffing” ground tobacco became popular during the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911 AD and the wealthy proudly amassed large collections of bottles.
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Canterbury Museum’s collection of glass models of marine invertebrates made by father and son glassworkers, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, offers a unique combination of scientific accuracy and breathtaking technical skill.
Sir Julius von Haast, the founder of Canterbury Museum, purchased the models in 1884. |
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Iwi tawhito
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Treasures from the ancestors
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Visit Iwi Tawhito and Ngâ Taonga galleries and see untouched New Zealand through the eyes of its first people – the tangata whenua. Glimpse Aotearoa in the time of the giant moa, majestic totara forests and rivers of pounamu. |
Kiwi feather cloaks (Kahu kiwi) are one of the most prestigious and beautiful Mâori garments. They are worn only by people of high rank, normally on ceremonial occasions.
The soft brown feathers are attached in small clumps to a dressed flax woven backing. This example has a contrasting border of tui, pigeon and parrot feathers. (Artist and tribal affiliation unknown) |
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The eggs of the moa, New Zealand’s now-extinct giant bird, were sometimes placed with the dead as burial offerings. Rarely found whole, this example was excavated at Wairau Bar in 1942. |
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Peoples of Waitaha/Canterbury
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A city on the plains
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See how the early European Canterbury settlers lived and built the most English city outside England on the swamp and gravel of the Canterbury Plains. Take a stroll through the Christchurch Street where Victorian ladies order whale-bone corsets and the men puff on ivory pipes. Look for the Penny Farthing bicycle and the coast-to-coast coach from the 1870s in the Transport Gallery. |
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View these symbols of Canterbury government. The seal was that of both the Canterbury Association (1849-1852) and the Canterbury Provincial Government (1853-1876). The trowel was used to lay the foundation stone of the Provincial Buildings, and the Divisional Bell was used to announce voting in the house. |
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