Museum brings icy continent to tropics

New Zealand's High Commissioner to Fiji, Jonathan Curr, may have been in Suva this week, but Otago Museum staff ensured he also had a taste of the Antarctic.

Mr Curr was given a virtual reality headset, enabling him to ''visit'' the icy continent, as part of an education outreach programme, using the museum's ''Far From Frozen'' travelling exhibition.

After earlier trips, including to Tonga in June, museum staff are undertaking their longest and most ambitious educational visit to the Pacific.

They will spend a fortnight in Fiji making presentations to pupils from a host of schools, to raise awareness about climate change issues.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has provided $50,000 towards the cost of taking the exhibition to Tonga, Fiji and later to Samoa.