On many a voyage

Rameshinder Singh Sandhu

When you are at Auckland’s viaduct harbour, you get greeted by many captivating ships, including yachts, and sometimes even grand cruise ships. These lure many — be it the young or old, taking their exhilaration so high.

But the same excitement touches new heights, once one steps in the world of New Zealand Maritime Museum sitting at the same harbour, considering tons of history and variety on water transportation floating in its every nook and corner. And, it brims out not just through pictures or text on the walls but through plethora of vessels from different eras in New Zealand. It’s the brainchild of T. L Rodney Wilson, a noted art historian and museum professional known for being the backbone of several museums and art galleries in the Kiwi land. Following several years of fund-raising and many creative efforts, its opening curtain finally went up in 1993.

Visitors can go on many voyages by exploring its many galleries dedicated to vessels that range from the time of first settlers of the country — Maori, followed by vessels used by European explorers while discovering New Zealand, to ships used for immigration and settlement, trading, coast guarding, modern commercial shipping, recreation and sporting, and much more.

Rubbing shoulders with the Maori collection transports visitors directly to the year 1250 and onwards when they used unique wooden canoes, some even richly decorated with their traditional art. The zone dedicated to immigrants’ journey on ships to New Zealand makes one oscillate from 1840s to 1860s, and floods visitors with many struggles encountered by them during the journey of several months. Interestingly, there is also a reproduction of a wooden sleeping cabin from a ship of immigrants in the 1840s that also shakes as on water, and stepping in it is like taking the quintessential feeling of being on it.

When in the company of ‘blue water, black magic’ gallery, which is a tribute to Sir Peter Blake, an award-winning ocean racer and environmentalist, it presents the contemporary and enticing yachts that represented the country at several renowned sailing contents, and the heroes that captained them. The yacht NZL 32 also known as the ‘black magic’ is a celebrity here that won the 1995s famed America’s Cup, and is certainly one of the most photographed.

On the other hand, while exploring if desire to go for sailing turns up, one can also choose to sail by booking one of the heritage ships of the museum. All known for their historic stories and achievements, they leave right from the museum and sail for nearly an hour. Nautilus ship is the latest addition which was used for picnics and racing since 1913, and was also used during World War 1. Since the 1920s, it became a private vehicle and then donated to the museum in 2011. However, each of these ships have particular timings during the day and advance bookings are recommended, starting NZD 25. Visitors mainly taken in small groups, they are also exposed to live commentary about the ship’s history.

For locals, there’s a free admission to the museum while visitors to the city have to buy a ticket, costing $20 NZ but if one holds the ticket of one of the heritage ships, it also permits entry to the museum.

And, coming to many yachts that are always studded around the museum, these are always with big notice boards, desperately calling for bookings for weddings, picnics, film shootings, night stays, parties and even business meetings, making it clear that all the fun here is on  water. May be for the same reason, the title of ‘city of sails’, perfectly describes ‘Auckland.’