Post #417345 by Paipo on Tue, Nov 4, 2008 11:00 PM

The first thing you see when ascending the stairs from the ground floor - both sides are flanked by these Maori panel carvings:

Stepping into the centre of the room, there is a longhouse surrounded by old-school museum cabinets. Further down is a Baining mask and a HUGE dance mask/costume in its own cabinet. This shot also shows the restored Victorian lantern ceiling, which I'm pretty sure was covered over when I used to visit in the 70s-80s...

A longer shot of the entire room:

Most of the walls are covered with these Victorian style cabinets, which are crammed full of amazing artifacts. Somewhat cluttered, yes - but in most museums many of these objects would be considered duplicates (especially the weapons) and consigned to the storage room. This style of display allows the keen student to compare subtle differences between similar objects!