Canterbury Museum

18/06/2026

Canterbury Museum was in a race with the fastest rollercoaster in the world. 🌍🏗️🎢

The Museum’s new storage basement competed against epic construction projects around the world at the Ground Engineering Awards in London today. March Construction’s work on the Canterbury Museum redevelopment was nominated for International Project of the Year, alongside a Saudi Arabian theme park with the fastest and tallest rollercoaster in the world, an offshore wind farm powering about 1 million Irish homes, a new police shooting range on the island of Jersey, a nearly 8 kilometre road tunnel in Kowloon and work on a new particle accelerator. The Central Kowloon Bypass took out the award.

It was an honour for our complex and exciting redevelopment to be represented on the world stage!

Follow redevelopment progress on our live we**am: www.canterburymuseum.com/redevelopment

17/06/2026

Before the Undie 500, there was the Old Crocks Trial. 🚗🏁📸

On 21 November 1931, dozens of British cars made before 1912 competed in a trial course that ran about 50km from Cranmer Square to the finish line at the Sign of the Kiwi.

A couple of cars competing had been filling gaps in a farm fence until just before the trial. Another car was recovered from under a woodpile.

Among the competitors were a Rudge motorcycle from 1911, a Clement Talbot from 1910 and a Daimler truck from 1909. But can the motorheads among you identify any of the other cars in this photo of the finish line? Share your knowledge below.👇🚗

Image: The Old Crocks Trial of 21 November 1931. Canterbury Museum 2000.198.220

15/06/2026

Coming soon. 🐿️🐻🐟🌳

Enter a fascinating world of flying squirrels, bearcats that smell of popcorn, fish that can climb trees and the world’s only venomous primate.

‘Tails From The Coasts: Nature Stories of Singapore’ opens at the ‘Canterbury Museum Pop-Up’ on 26 June. The exhibition offers an insight into Singapore’s diverse and intriguing wildlife through a priceless collection of historic watercolours.

The 200-year-old artworks, on loan from the National Museum of Singapore, are also brought to life through animation in a special immersive digital experience called ‘Voyage – Experience the William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings of Southeast Asia’.

Read more: www.canterburymuseum.com/visit/whats-on/tails-from-the-coasts



Image: Red Giant Flying Squirrel. William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings. 1995-02894. Collection of the National Museum of Singapore. Gift of Mr. G.K. Goh

12/06/2026

Here are three views of a Christchurch laneway lost to time. 🕰️📸🏛️

Chancery Lane provided a shortcut from Gloucester Street to Cathedral Square from the early days of Christchurch and was officially named in 1881.

The black and white photograph was taken in 1905, the same year the Regent Theatre was completed in Cathedral Square. The theatre’s distinctive dome looms over Chancery Lane in the 1925 etching by James Fitzgerald.

The laneway was transformed over the following decades, becoming Chancery Arcade in 1969, getting a big revamp in 1981 and providing a home for The Chancery Tavern and Restaurant, the glitzy Palladium nightclub and De Larno’s Magic Centre.

The final photo shows how the laneway looked just after the September 2010 Canterbury earthquake. In March 2015, the laneway and arcade were demolished to make way for the new convention centre, Te Pae.

Remember any big nights at the Palladium? Share your Chancery Lane memories below.👇

Read more about Chancery Lane’s colourful history: https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/blogs/post/goodbye-gloucester-street-west-chancery-lane/

Images:
Chancery Lane in 1905. Canterbury Museum 19XX.2.215

A James Fitzgerald etching of Chancery Lane in 1925. Canterbury Museum 1971.222.1

A photograph of the same view in September 2010. Café Cecil. BY-NC-SA 2.0

11/06/2026

LAST CHANCE DINO ALERT 🦖⏳🔥

This weekend is your last chance to get amongst the amazing dinosaurs at the ‘Canterbury Museum Pop-Up’.

Stomp along to ‘Dinosaurs: Surviving Extinction’ before it goes extinct.

Read more: www.canterburymuseum.com/visit/whats-on/dinosaurssurvivingextinction

10/06/2026

Take an interactive trip through some of the 2.3 million objects in the Canterbury Museum collection.

In this talk, Canterbury Museum Associate Curator Natural History, Johnno Ridden, takes you on a journey through the fascinating web of connections across the collection.

These treasures tell fascinating stories about people, Canterbury and the world.

A Friends of the Canterbury Museum talk.

Take an interactive trip through some of the 2.3 million objects Ca...

09/06/2026

Remember Claude the Kiwi?📸🥝

This giant fibreglass and steel kiwi stood in a commanding spot above Colombo Street from the 1970s until he was moved to Orana Park on 10 December 1988.

Claude used to spin slowly when he was first installed, but workers in the building below were driven to distraction by the motor noise, so he was immobilised.

His original home was on the roof of the Combined Co-Operative Distributors at the corner of Tuam and Antigua Streets, before he was craned down in 1969 and moved to Colombo Street a few years later.

Got any memories of Claude? Do you know when he was first installed on Colombo Street? Share below. 👇



Image: The corner of Colombo Street and Carlyle Street on 5 October 1983. Canterbury Museum 2019.10.3764

05/06/2026

Here’s a high tech treat. 🚀🕹️🐄

These 1980s control panels may look like they are from a spaceship, but a closer look reveals they had a far more earthbound purpose.

The buttons on the white and grey panel read MUTTON, BEEF and PIGS. Other buttons are labelled BLEEDING CONVEYOR, BEEF SAW, OFFAL RAIL and VISCERA TABLE.

It’s not clear what the other two panels were used for, but we do know that the cheeky little unit with the cute legs was about as high tech as it got in 1980s Christchurch. 🤖🦿😄

Can anyone identify exactly what these panels controlled? Share below. 👇



Images:
Blue control panel by Norm Smith Electronics. Canterbury Museum 1992.96.36642
Abbatoir control panel by Bremca. Canterbury Museum 1997.206.1971
Beige control panel by Bremca. Canterbury Museum 1997.206.1704

03/06/2026

You only have two weekends left to see the dinos! 🦖🥚🦴🦕

Bring the whole family along to the 'Canterbury Museum Pop-Up' this weekend to see giant replica dinosaur skeletons, discover buried bones in the dig pit and touch real fossils. You will also encounter a nest of baby dinosaurs that were discovered perfectly fossilised in China.

Stomp along to “Dinosaurs: Surviving Extinction” before the exhibition closes on 14 June.⏳🔥

Read more: https://www.canterburymuseum.com/visit/whats-on/dinosaurssurvivingextinction