Canterbury Museum and Quake City, its special exhibition telling stories from the Canterbury earthquakes, will reopen to the public tomorrow (Thursday 14 May).
Museum Director Anthony Wright says staff are excited to welcome visitors again and hope that people will be keen to come back to the central city. “There will be additional hygiene and public health measures in place at both venues as the health and safety of visitors and our staff are our primary concern.”
Mr Wright says that visitors will need to comply with some public health conditions of entry:
All visitors will have to sign in and leave their contact details so they can be traced by health authorities if necessary.
- Only 100 visitors will be allowed in the Museum and 40 at Quake City at any one time. Museum staff will control entry on a one out, one in basis, once these thresholds have been reached.
- Visitors must practise social distancing, keeping one metre away from strangers.
- Groups of more than 10 people or anyone who is unwell or who has Covid 19 symptoms – temperature, dry cough, difficulty breathing – will be refused entry to both venues.“We’ve also had to remove or fence off some touchable exhibits. Unfortunately this includes the much-loved horse in The Christchurch Street,” Mr Wright says.
“The horse has had a grand old time while we’ve been closed, gallivanting around the building, catching up with old friends and making some new acquaintances. We even made a video for him about his once in a 100-year exploits which you can see on the Museum's YouTube Channel. But now he’s back in the street, practising social distancing and off limits to riders for the next little while.”
The Museum is now operating winter hours, opening at 9.00 am and closing at 5.00 pm. Quake City will open at 10.00 am and close at 5.00 pm as normal.