If you’ve been missing Canterbury Museum’s blue whale skeleton since it left public display 30 years ago, then you are in for a treat.
You can now see a large verterbrae from the much-loved whale in a new touring display from Canterbury Museum. The whale verterbrae is just one of the nearly 200 bones that make up the 27-metre, 4.6-tonne creature. The whale, which is one of the largest skeletons in any museum in the world, will be suspended in spectacular fashion in the atrium of the redeveloped Canterbury Museum when it opens in 2029. A dramatic return for the much-loved whale after three decades in storage.
The new display also previews the look and feel of the new Museum. A scale model shows how the new buildings, complete with light filled atrium and resident whale, will wrap around the heritage buildings on Rolleston Avenue and link to the Robert McDougall Gallery. The model gives a bird’s eye view of what will soon be coming out of the ground on Rolleston Avenue and how the new buildings relate to their neighbours.
A series of videos included in the display provide even more insight. You can watch a virtual fly through of how the new Museum will look, learn about the design of the building from architect Trevor Watt and see the work going on behind the scenes to design new attractions and revitalise old favourites for the new Museum.
