Our Stories
Come Behind the Scenes – a weekly insight into the Museum world!
The Museum Spooky House 5pm
28th October 2023 from 5pm-7pm
The Museum Spooky House 8pm
28th October 2023 from 8-9.30pm
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...
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...
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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