The last thing you'd expect a country's national museum to encourage you to do would be to jump inside a tin shack while it was in full seismic revolt. But they do... all in the name of education, of course.
Te Papa, which translates as "My Place", is an institution proud of all things Kiwi (including the occasional earthquake). So proud in fact, that this museum, on Wellington’s waterfront, has an exhibition dedicated to New Zealand’s fault-lines that encourages visitors to learn via involvement.
This is Te Papa's strength, that it has turned history, culture and education into an interactive experience drawing the curiosity of all who walk into its five-storey, 36,000 sq metre space.
Te Papa is seriously bi-cultural. It celebrates those who are here by right of Treaty, and those by right of discovery.
And the way it celebrates these factions is so unique that you tend to forget that this is a museum – particularly when you see a corrugated-iron car in the same building as Te Marae (the meeting house); art exhibitions alongside a junk shop; weta hotels (purpose-built for live creepy crawlies) next door to a virtual bungy experience.
Within Te Papa you'll also find 26 audio visuals, 28 audio shows, spectacular sound and light shows, 121 mechanical interactives and ten specially devised Te Papa computer interactives.