Earthquake Museum, Napier

You must experience what an earthquake is like in this museum.

It is only a small museum, but interesting none-the-less.

There is only room for about 6 persons in a mock up of a room, and I really did not know what to expect when I entered. Then I suddenly knew because the floor began to shake, things fell off the wall, noise etc., was so realistic. Of course after a minute or so everything went miraculously back into place.

In this interesting museum you can watch footage from the 1931 Earthquake, listen to recent interviews with elderly survivors of their experiences all those years ago and where they were when it happened, what impact it had on their lives and that of the town, etc.

There is a pictorial display in black and white of the aftermath of the earthquake, and other exhibits.

You can also see how a seismograph works in action, and browse through graph sheets from previous days/months to see what activity has been ocurring recently (we were suprised to see quite a big blip on one page just a few days earlier - evidently small tremors happen a lot, because NZ is on not one but 2 plates of the earth). Fortunately the majority of activity is very minor.

There is also an exhibition room of maori art , history and more.