Why not explore Mother Nature’s own collection of curiosities? Discover what Tāmaki Makaurau's nature has to offer on this page, then take a socially-distanced walk in your local area to see what you can find.
Native plant activities
While you’re out and about in your neighbourhood, see if you can spot these plants commonly found around Tāmaki Makaurau.
Crosswords
Test your knowledge of te reo Māori names for Aotearoa's native plants
Thank you to Ewen Cameron, Ricky-Lee Erickson, Bernice Moore, Ruby Moore, Dhahara Ranatunga, Tom Rowlands, Mereana Taungapeau and Robert Vennell for helping create these crosswords.
Treasures & Tales online: Bizarre Butterflies
In this fun online session your tamariki will learn some fun facts about butterflies and what makes them so unusual.
Treasures & Tales online: The Insect World
Watch this recording of our recent Tūhura Taonga ā tuihono: Te Aitanga a Pēpeke te reo Māori learning session.
He weriweri rawa,
He Mīharo rawa,
He paku rawa te nuinga o ēnei taonga tino whakahirahira o te taiao.
Tūhuratia te ao o te Aitanga ā-Pēpeke. Me wānanga tātou katoa he aha ētahi o ōna uri kua kitea? Me pēhea ēnei ngārara e tiaki ana i te taiao me tātou anō hoki?
Koinei ngā tino pātai ā ngā Mātai rapu ngārara.
Could an undiscovered creature be lurking in your garden?
For Curator of Entomology, Natural Sciences, John Early the answer to this question is ‘yes!’. Thanks to last year’s Level 4 Lockdown, John discovered a species of introduced wasp previously unrecognised in Aotearoa. In this blog, he discusses how he made his unusual discovery.
These green giants are so much more than pleasant shelter for a picnic. Learn about the fascinating history of the unique commemorative trees spotted through Pukekawa Auckland Domain.
If you live in the area, try spot these trees on your next socially-distanced walk.
Native bird jigsaw puzzles
These beautiful native bird paintings by artist and illustrator Erin Forsyth will form part of the Tiritiri Matangi bird wall in our new Tāmaki Herenga Waka: Stories of Auckland gallery. With Erin's permission, we've turned them into online jigsaw puzzles.
Check out more puzzles on our jigsaw puzzle page.
How many volunteers does it take to make a wildly successful native bird sanctuary? More than you'd think. Read about how a humble spade tells the story of the committed volunteers who made Tiritiri Matangi a conservation project for the people.
Nearly 40 years ago, an Auckland Museum scientist landed on an impossibly remote rocky island hunting for strange vegetation. Instead, he discovered what could be a completely new subspecies of albatross. Learn about the DNA research the Museum's researchers are doing today to find the missing pieces.
We're passionate about getting kids involved in science and conservation in really accessible ways. In 2020, the Citizen Scientists Initiative, or CSI, recruited kids to take another, closer look at the things living in their backyards, photograph what they found, and upload it to the iNaturalist platform for Museum scientists to identify.
Kids uncovered a range of strange and wonderful wildlife, from a type of fungi known as the 'Potato Earthball' to the green lacewing, an insect our Curator of Entomology discovered last year. Another investigator discovered the first known record of the Myrianida pachycera, or Marine polychaete worm!
We need your help to find out about the biodiversity in your backyards. See what you can find and report it in a special system. We've updated this resource with more cool things to find.
So far our CSI fieldworkers have logged more than 1500 observations and identified more than 500 species from up and down the country - ka rawe, investigators!
Do you know your magma from your lava? Watch a recording of our recent Treasures & Tales online: Volcanoes of Auckland live session, plus a bunch of other volcanoes videos. Test your volcano knowledge in a fun quiz.
Our Volcanoes page is just a snippet of what we have to entertain tamariki.
Featuring videos, colouring-in activities, quizzes, mazes, and more - there's plenty for little ones to do on our dedicated Kids page.