Day #8: NZ Date: 24th of February, Wednesday; US Date: February 23rd, Tuesday.
Johnny really wanted to show me the Army Museum in Waiouru. So he, Joey and I went there today.
It was a large building, looks like it was made of concrete, and had several tanks sitting out front.
Inside, there was a small restaurant and a gift shop (overpriced as most gift shops are), and a small cashier desk to get your tickets to enter the museum.
You got your tickets and walked up a hallway to a small-ish foyer, where on one side was a wall laid over with Jade stone, a small waterfall running down it. and above the jade wall, were 2 walls overlaid with knit or crochet poppies, of a brilliant red hue.
On the other side of the foyer, was a blue lit area, with names of battles and/or wars NZ had fought.
Then more stairs going upwards, there was a room dedicated to the nations favorite sport, Rugby, and how it helped to keep up moral for the army’s of NZ.
And then the museum went on to show memorabilia form world war ii and wars with the NZ natives, the Maori, who were among the first to use Trenches in warfare.
Here are some interesting photos I got in the museum:
Downstairs, were memorabilia from more recent wars, and a room of medals that had been awarded to service men. and a hall of guns, showing a rough history of the gun evolution.
After the museum, we went to Subway, had teriyaki chicken with lots of veggies, and a garlic spread, which came out pretty good.
On the way home, we stopped by the Tangawai Disaster memorial. Its near a bridge, the water running under it has a slight smell of sulfur (icky). The memorial is in memory of an event that took place at this location on Christmas Eve 1953. The bridge had collapsed, and the 3pm Wellington-Auckland Express crashed into the river, killing 151 of its passengers and the train crew. Even queen Elizabeth was on tour in New Zealand at the time, here’s a quote from Wikipedia about that:
“Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh were visiting New Zealand on their first royal tour when the disaster occurred. The Queen made her Christmas broadcastfrom Auckland, finishing with a message of sympathy to the people of New Zealand. The Duke of Edinburgh attended a state funeral for many of the victims.”
The memorial has names listed of all who died, and a small building with the news reports of what had happened and the aftermath.