Our Stories
Come Behind the Scenes – a weekly insight into the Museum world!
185th HMS Buffalo Commemoration
28th July 2025
A Land of a Thousand Sorrows Documentary Screening
27th July 2025
Pirates Revenge Treasure Hunt
Thursday 3rd July 2025
Matariki Whanau Day
Friday 20th June 2025
KEEP THE LIGHTS ON
MERCURY BAY MUSEUM JOINS CAMPAIGN TO SAVE MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES. Today Mercury Bay Museum joined a nationwide campaign to emphasise the value of galleries and museums in Aotearoa New Zealand, and highlight the existential risks they’re facing. The campaign is a result...
HMS Buffalo, digitally preserved and displayed for the first time
In July 1840, the British naval ship, HMS Buffalo, took shelter in Mercury Bay, Whitianga, New Zealand to weather out an incoming storm. When the storm hit, it was described as ‘hurricane strength’ and resulted in the vessel becoming a total loss on what is now known...
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...
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. ...
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