Canterbury Museum brings back iconic Paua Shell House

Fred and Myrtle’s Paua Shell House is back as a virtual tour.

The new interactive experience means visitors to Canterbury Museum's temporary Pop-up at CoCA can once again enjoy the polished pāua shells, vintage carpet and retro glory of this Kiwiana classic. 

The much-loved exhibit was digitally captured in high definition before it was taken down and carefully put into storage last year ahead of the major redevelopment of the Museum’s Rolleston Avenue buildings. 

The virtual tour is presented on a touch screen housed in a retro television built especially for the display. The tour is also available on the museum’s website. 

The Paua Shell House will return in the redeveloped museum.

In the meantime, the virtual tour allows this popular attraction to still be enjoyed. 

The virtual tour includes photographs, music, video and text to recreate the full Paua Shell House experience. 

Museum staff have also digitally captured other much-loved museum exhibits, including the Christchurch Street, the Antarctic Gallery and the Bird Hall.

More virtual tours of the old galleries will be created over the next three years. 

Dr Morgane Merien, science and curatorial communicator at the museum, said it was a huge job to digitally capture nearly every exhibition space in the Rolleston Ave building. 

Merien and museum exhibition technician Liam Dangerfield used a camera and special software to record the spaces in three dimensions. 

Merien said it felt good to bring back Bluff's former Paua Shell House to the pop-up museum. 

“It was painstaking work, but I’m glad I was able to capture all those spaces before the museum closed for redevelopment.” 

Museum tumuaki/director Anthony Wright said it was important to capture the Rolleston Ave exhibitions before the redevelopment work got under way. 

“They’re an important part of the museum’s history which needed to be recorded for our archives. 

“We’ll need visual access to many of the former Rolleston Ave displays as we develop the visitor experience for the new museum. 

“Some of these much-loved exhibitions will return in the new museum – the Christchurch Street and Paua Shell House for example – and others like the Antarctic Gallery and the Bird Hall will be reimagined. 

“We hope they will continue to delight and surprise museum visitors for decades to come.” 

• The new virtual tour is available at Canterbury Museum at CoCA at 66 Gloucester St. Or you can experience the virtual tour at www.canterburymuseum.com.