Auckland Museum at Home

Boredom busters for inquisitive minds! Have a go at our interactive games, download activities to do offline and watch fun and educational videos made just for kids.

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We're collecting Covid-19 material and we need your help. To find out what we're looking for and how to donate, visit this page.

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We've opened up our exhibition archives for you to explore.

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Find out how much you know about Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum, through this quiz.

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During lockdown, we asked Aucklanders to help our Natural Sciences and Learning Teams. The Citizen Scientists Initiative, or CSI, invited people to photograph animal and plant life in their backyards and out on their daily walks, and share it to the iNaturalist platform, which allows scientists to communicate with these intrepid discoverers.

The results were inspiring. Locals uncovered a range of strange and wonderful wildlife, from the Common Bird-Dropping Spider to a type of fungi known as the 'Potato Earthball'. The green lacewing (insect), which our Curator of Entomology discovered last year, was unearthed in another part of Auckland, while another Kiwi discovered the first known record of the Myrianida pachycera, or Marine polychaete worm.

There have been 600 observations recorded of more than 323 different species. Of these, 22 percent were plants, 34 percent molluscs, 15 percent insects, four percent spiders, seven percent fungi and four percent birds. It's testament to the incredible biodiversity we can find right under our noses!

A reminder from our scientists - Autumn is a great time to spot fungi out and about. You never know what could pop up overnight!  Find out how to become a Citizen Scientist here.

Around the world as part of International Museum Week, Museums are celebrating heroes, people who have helped to look after us all during this time. For Auckland Museum, we have an unsung hero who has been keeping our taonga safe.

A master of collection care, with more than 15 years’ working with Auckland Museum's collections, Craig undertakes the essential task of looking after our precious taonga every day while our doors are closed. As well as checking in on objects across the galleries, Craig also makes sure everything is ship shape in our collection storage rooms, of which there are more than 20!

What does he do to keep them safe? Craig sorts anything that poses a threat to the safety of our collections, from pesky pest activity to sneaky leaks, so the objects in our care can continue to tell stories of Auckland, Aotearoa and beyond for future generations to come.

This Hot Cross and Cold Cross Bun recipe is from Aunt Daisy's Cookery Book of Approved Recipes.

Maud Ruby Basham (30 August 1879 – 14 July 1963), professionally known as Aunt Daisy, was a well-loved New Zealand radio broadcaster. Her 30 minute daily morning show ran from 1933 to 1963. Her role was primarily to promote household products and to boost morale during World War II.

Try out this recipe and it might just boost morale in your household. Hot Cross Buns best served hot with lashings of butter.

HOT CROSS AND COLD CROSS BUNS
1oz. yeast, 5oz. butter, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ level teaspoon grated nutmeg, ¼ level teaspoon ground cloves, ¼ level teaspoon ground ginger, ½ lb. currants, 1 egg, 5oz. castor sugar, 1 ½ lb. flour, ¼ lb. mixed peel, ¾ pint milk.

Put yeast into small basin. Add 1 teaspoon sugar to it, mix them together until they liquefy. Warm ¼ pt. milk and add it to them. Sift 4oz. flour into large basin. Strain in yeast mixture, and mix to smooth batter. Throw cloth over basin, stand in warm place 30 to 45 minutes. Meanwhile wash, pick over, dry the fruit, and shred peel. Sift remainder of flour into another basin with spices. Rub in the fat, add sugar and prepared fruit. Mix them well together. When yeast mixture is ready, gradually stir into it other prepared ingredients, adding also beaten egg and remainder if milk made warm. Mix them al together, beat well. Then throw cloth over basin, put mixture in warm place to rise until it swells to double its bulk. Will take about 1 ½ hour. When dough is ready, turn on to floured board and divide into 36 portions. Work each portion in smooth bun shape. Place buns on lightly greased and floured baking sheets, leaving space between each to allow to rise. Mark a cross on buns. Cover buns lightly with a cloth and stand in warm place for 20mins or until they are double their size. Put them in fairly hot oven to bake. They will take about 20 mins to cook.

For Glaze for Hot Cross Buns: 1 dessertspoon castor sugar, 2 dessertspoons milk.
Icing for Cold Cross Buns: 6oz, icing sugar, about 2 dessertspoons boiling water.

_{Image Credit: Aunt Daisy’s cookery book of approved recipes, 1934. AWMM. TX725.N5 DAI.}

Since ancient times, the egg has been seen as a symbol of life and rebirth. In Christianity, the egg became associated with Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection and became a symbol of Easter. The tradition of Easter eggs originated in early Mesopotamia, where chicken eggs were dyed red in memory of the blood Christ shed when he was crucified. Although egg dyeing is still a popular activity for kids and adults alike during Easter, modern alternatives includes chocolate eggs and candy filled in egg-shaped containers - while the Russian imperial family had jewelled Easter eggs for them by the House of Fabergé from 1885 to 1916.

_{Image credit: Collection of Auckland Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira, gift of Mr Harry S Dadley, 1934.316, K3122, 20734.}