He has selected over 100 pieces to showcase a wide variety of items that make up the museum’s extraordinary collection.
"A lot of people don’t know what we have got."
The collection also included pieces from Vesuvius and Pompeii.
Many knew the museum had the camera Sir Edmund Hillary took to the summit of Mount Everest.
But another curious item was the oldest telescope in New Zealand, dating from 1736.
Dr Griffin was the eighth director of the museum, and so he decided to highlight items collected by each of the previous seven directors.
For example the immediate past previous director Shimrath Paul opened the Butterfly House, so a blue morpho butterfly had been included.
Ray Forster who served as director from 1957 to 1987 was very interested in spiders.
"So we’ve got one of these Nelson cave spiders which are very rare."
A display of British coins going back more than a thousand years started with a penny of Burgred, King of Mercia, who ruled from 852-74.
Dr Griffin had been able to add to the collection by donating a Charles III 50p coin.
"Which was only minted a few weeks ago."
This was a chance to highlight a small quirk of royal coinage.
"Whenever a new king or queen comes into power, their heads change directions, so you can see Elizabeth II is looking that way, and Charles is looking that way, so it is kind of cool."
Director’s Choice — wonderful things from the collections of Tūhura Otago Museum can be viewed in the stairwell case displays until March next year.
