Saturday, 11 June 2022. Join the Mercury Bay Museum, Mercury Twin Cinemas and HMS Buffalo Re-examination Unit to bring you the first New Zealand screening of Land of a Thousand Sorrows Revisited.
Past Stories
Older articles from our archives
March Overview
The Museum has been a little quiet lately with a reduced number of visitors. The visitors that are still coming through however have travelled from some distances – Whanganui, Nelson and Christchurch just to name a few. So New Zealanders are still travelling around...
Covid Update
On Monday 22nd November 2021, the Government announced its intention to move Aotearoa New Zealand into the COVID-19 Protection Framework from Thursday 2nd December 2021 at 11:59pm. With this move to the framework the Mercury Bay Museum has today confirmed that it will...
After the Storm
It has been a busy time at the Museum recently with arrival of not one or two, but now six pieces of timber that we believe are from the shipwreck HMS Buffalo. Over the weekend of 28th May we received a total of five timbers that were collected from the beach with the...
Murder at the Museum
22 May 2021 from 6-8pm The Mercury Bay Museum is hosting a: Murder Mystery Night Fundraiser Tickets will be limited so be in quick. Duration 2 hoursPrepaid tickets are $30.00 each Tickets on sale now Dress up as your your character which will be given to you on...
New Zealand Archaeology Week: HMS Buffalo – A ship and its survey
30 April 2021 Duration: 1 hour 30min Venue: The Monkey House Club, Whitianga A public evening with presentations and a panel discussion around the shipwreck of the HMS Buffalo in Whitianga. Maritime archaeologists Kurt Bennett & Matthew Gainsford, along with...
NZ Archaeology Week – DIGGING DEEP
30 April 2021 from 11am Duration 2 hours Come and join us for a fun session of digging deep to find the artefacts! Archaeologists discover sites that need to be "dug". The process is very pain stakingly slow but these archaeological sites can tell us a lot about...
NZ Archaeology Week – “Archaeology Is Rubbish!!”
28 April 2021 from 11am Duration 2 hours Come and join us for a fun session of archaeology detective work!! Archaeologists can learn a lot about who was living in places by the rubbish that they find in archaeological sites. Food scraps, tools & clothing can...
NZ Archaeology Week – “Going Potty!!” kids activity session
27 April 2021 Duration 2 hours Come and join us for a fun session of going potty!! Archaeologists can learn a lot about pottery fragments found in archaeological sites. Shape, material and decoration can reveal a vessels construction, function and age! Join us to...
HMS Buffalo’s cannon or carronade?
Located in the Soldiers Memorial Park, Whitianga, sits a cast-iron ordnance that is semi-encased in a contemporary concrete support. Two plaques on the front of the concrete base read that it is the cannon from HMS Buffalo, yet it almost looks too short and stumpy to...
HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project Update
The HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project is crossing its fingers for fine weather and smooth seas this coming weekend. A team of 10 volunteer divers led by maritime archaeologists Matthew Gainsford and Kurt Bennett will be surveying the wreck over the two days. ...
Happy New Year!!
We have started 2021 off with fabulous numbers of visitors through the doors. These visitors are from all over Aotearoa New Zealand. Its awesome to see that people are getting out there and seeing their own country! Thank you to everyone who has visited us and if...
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