September is going to be an exciting month here at the Museum. I will be trying out my new Spring Education Programme with the junior students from Arrowtown. We will also have our gallery space back up and running, with the renovations of the bathrooms finally finished. There will be an exhibition of photographs by Grahame Sydney which include landscapes and portraits.

'Close to Home' will be on from the 6th September to the 31st October. Locals and visitors alike can appreciate the stunning imagery that captures the essence of central Otago.

Senior high school students considering studying the arts at a tertiary level would really benefit from visiting an exhibition by a well known and successful New Zealand artist. Primary students could also appreciate the experience a gallery visit provides, and could be used to inspire your next visual art unit!

Contact us to make a booking for your students!

Year 8 boys from John McGlashen started their visit to the Museum with a warm sunny day, little did we know that by the afternoon it would be raining cats and dogs!

Regardless of the rain it was a jam packed day, with a museum visit, a tour of the Chinese village, a historic walk of Arrowtown, and of course gold panning.

The highlights of the visit would definitely be:

1. The man sitting on the long drop in the City scape
2. Holding a real Moa bone
3. Finding the secret passageway with the hidden safe
4. The old Gaol on the historic walk
5. Hearing about the ghost from the Chinese village
6. FINDING GOLD!!

What was the highlight of your visit? Comment below.

I hope the rain eases up for your trip to Macetown tomorrow!

We had some Year 7 and 8 students come all the way from Auckland to visit us!

Learning about the hard weather conditions these early settlers faced, was something new for these North Islander kids, as the weather is much warmer up in Auckland! We looked at some real artefacts which included a Moa bone, a pounamu mere, and early mining and farming tools. Then everyone split into smaller groups to explore the Museum. One group discovered a display of objects that was from a young boys treasure chest from a long time ago. There were wooden spinning tops inside, small pebbles, and a coloring book.

Maybe if you start collecting some things now, some one might look at your treasured items in a Museum in the future!!!

We finished the visit with some gold panning at the Arrow river. I think we found a lucky spot, as some of the students found GOLD!

Comment below if you saw the secret passageway with the hidden safe! Enjoy the rest of your trip Mt Roskill!

What a jam packed morning we have just had! Year 7 and 8 Abbotsford kids came all the way from Dunedin to visit our Museum and go skiing.

We had 59 students in total, so everyone split up into 3 smaller groups, and rotated through our activities which were a Museum visit, a Historic Walk, and of course GOLD PANNING! It was a lucky school group with most kids finding specks of gold when they went panning in the Arrow river. I wonder if the recent rainfall helped make the panning so successful? Gold was first discovered in the Arrow river by Jack Tewa in 1862, when he was digging along the bank of the river.

I posted up some pictures of some gold that a student found in her pan ... It's just a tiny wee speck. The miners had to look very carefully and be very patient when they were gold mining.It would take them all day to collect up small specks like that.

Comment below if you think being a gold miner in the 1800's would have been easy or hard - and say why!

Enjoy the rest of your visit Abbotsford kids!

On warm, mild days like today I know that spring is just around the corner!

To celebrate the arrival of spring, I am taking classes on observational nature walks to see the arrival of spring during September!

We will be looking at flowers, new growth, and the seasonal changes in comparison to winter. With the Earth taking a whole year to spin around the sun, it means that different parts of the year are warmer than others. Spring means that there are longer days as New Zealand moves closer to the sun, it also means warmer weather!

Make a booking for your class to kickstart a fun science unit!

My favorite flowers during spring are daffodils! Comment below with your favorite spring flowers.

James Hargest sent their year 13 geographers over for our Geography Presentation.

It was a large group so we used the facilities at the Wakatipu Community Church Hall, where students had their pick from 3 TV screens to view the presentation!

I even learnt something new from the Geography teacher! That Jim Hamilton not only designed the Hamilton Jet but also the original rope tow used on Coronet Peak!

Yesterday, the students also had the benefit of listening to local Senior Constable Beth speak about the social impact of tourists in Queenstown. Everyone was really impressed by her knowledge and experience. The education programme here at the Museum helped arrange this, and I bet hearing Beth speak would've been the highlight for the students trip!

Comment below about what you most enjoyed on your visit to Queenstown and Arrowtown.

This afternoon Arrowtown Montessori visited the Lakes District Museum & Gallery. We had a wonderful time holding a moa bone, poha, and a pounamu mere!

We then looked at the Tukutuku panel the museum has on display, everyone could see the triangle patterns which represented the mountains in the area.

All the kids then got to have their own go at making their own tukutuku panels! We used peg boards, pipe cleaners and feathers for a modern version of a traditional tukutuku panel.

Tukutuku panels were traditionally woven with flax on native wood. They would be displayed inside marae's and whare's between the wooden carved pillars. The tukutuku panels were used to show the local landscape and also to tell Maori Mythology that was special to different iwi's.

Everyone did an amazing job with their panels and I put a few pictures up for you all to look at.

Comment below about your favourite part of making tukutuku panels!

Year 13 Geographers from Waitaki Boys High, traveled to the Lakes District Museum & Gallery on a Sunday!

It was a cold, grey day outside. But inside our conference room the students were warm and cozy!

After listening to the presentation, the students utilized their time here by having a look at our Museum. This is one of the great things we offer with our Geography presentations, so students can really put all their knowledge into context.

The boys were great note takers, and I'm sure the information from the presentation will come in handy for all of the upcoming assessments.

Enjoy the rest of your week skiing boys!

St Peter's also came for our Geography presentation this week!

Driving all the way from Gore - the Students compared their teachers driving with the hell rising ride the early settlers and tourists felt going through the narrow ride in Skippers Canyon during the 1800's!

It's always interesting to see how different school groups find different parts of the presentation intriguing. This time the Fly by Wire generated a lot of interest. It was started in June 1988, where tourists were swung around in a circle in a part rocket machine. This attraction reached speeds of up to 170 kph! It was great having you guys come visit - good luck with your studies!

What other parts of the presentation did you guys enjoy? Comment below!

Kavanagh College popped in for our Geography Presentation this morning. We have quite a few year 13 Geographers visiting us at the moment!

The students really got to understand the impact of tourism on the area by visiting tourism ventures such as the bungy jump and Millbrook, and by seeing images in our presentation of how small Queenstown previously was.

Over the years the housing and business developments have made quite a visual impact upon the landscape to accommodate the very tourists who visit us for our landscape!

Comment below about one of your favourite tourist activities to do in Queenstown!

I had a wonderful afternoon with Liberton Christian School today.

The year 7 and 8 students drove all the way from Dunedin, to come to Queenstown for a ski camp and to visit our Museum!

We started the afternoon looking at some artefacts in the museum - everyone couldn't believe we had some real Moa bones!

After the museum visit, we had a tour of the Chinese village and learnt about Ah-Lum and his store. Ah-Lum could speak both Chinese and English and became well respected in the community. Even on a mild Winter day like today, everyone could see and appreciate what difficult living conditions the Chinese had.

Finally the students went gold panning, and some even discovered some GOLD!

I hope you all enjoyed your visit today, and have a wonderful time skiing up here in central Otago.

Comment below about your favourite part of your visit.

St Kevin's came for a visit on Sunday afternoon to hear our Geography presentation.

We used our own Museum facilities for this smaller group, and had everyone seated in our conference room.

These students visited the local Remarkable Sweet Shop for a sugar hit after the long drive from Oamaru, before settling in for a presentation about the changes of tourism in the area.

Oamaru is another great place to visit like Arrowtown. A lot of the buildings are very old just like ours, and were built using local limestone. The hotel in Oamaru is a great example of this.

I hope all of you found the presentation useful - comment below to let us know if you enjoyed your visit.

Year 13 geography students from John McGlashen experienced our Geography Tourism Presentation in a new setting.

With our larger school bookings we have started using the modern facilities at the community hall at St John's Presbyterian Church, and the Johnnies boys were the first to trial it! Denise our educator ran the presentation, and the boys used their smart phones to capture essential parts of the presentation.  The presentation covered temporal and spatial changes in the Queenstown area for tourism, and students were really able to comprehend the effects of tourism in Queenstown thanks to having a school trip to the area.

Good luck for the studies boys! Comment below if you enjoyed the new venue for the presentation.