LETS GET BECS TO BELGIUM TRIP 2025
October 2025
Day(s)
:
Hour(s)
:
Minute(s)
:
Second(s)
About the Event
Representing the Museum & Mercury Bay on the global stage
In 2020 the HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project was created to complete the first ever detailed archaeological survey of the HMS Buffalo. The project was the recipient of the Australasian Institute of Maritime Archaeology (AIMA) Scholarship for 2021, and the funds were used to complete the survey in March 2021.
The team has won the New Zealand Archaeological Association’s Public Archaeology Award in 2022, the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology’s Public Archaeology Award in 2023 and most recently were awarded the Best Paper at AIMA Conference 2024 – titled HMS Buffalo: Connections, collections and community.
As a results of these successes, the team have been invited to present a paper at the International Kongress of Underwater Archaeology (IKUWA8) to be held at Oostend, Belgium in October 2025. The team will be presenting in the session where the focus is on underwater cultural heritage focused avocational archaeology and citizen science groups and the need for more of these groups! The HMS Buffalo Re-examination project and Museum team are a perfect fit for this category and are out there doing this mahi regularly in our community.
This is very exciting for the HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project Team and the Mercury Bay Museum – not only to be recognised, but is an opportunity to showcase the amazing mahi we do in promoting maritime archaeology and history within our community.
The HMS Buffalo Re-examination Project Team and the Mercury Bay Museum would love to send Becs to attend this conference along with Kurt to represent us and the Mercury Bay Community. “It’s a great honor to be asked to present at this global conference and to represent Mercury Bay on the world stage. The work we do here in the Museum around the HMS Buffalo and our history is so rewarding and it is amazing to think we can share that with colleagues in the same archeological/museum fields.
While in Belgium, Becs will also be spending time visiting world war memorial sites to learn more about the involvement of Aotearoa New Zealand and specifically Mercury Bay in the World Wars. Becs will visit the Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries and monuments in Belgium and France to pay respect on behalf of our community to our fallen soldiers who lie at rest there far from home.
At this stage the total cost of the trip looks to be $12,000 – airfares, accommodation, conference registration etc.
Fundraising
Let’s get “Becs to Belgium” has begun!
Launched on 30th December 2024 we are selling tickets for an amazing raffle that has been kindly supported by businesses in our community.
Tickets are $10 each and available from Mercury Bay Museum, Whitianga isite Information Centre, Dive Zone & Smitty’s Sports Bar and Grill.
The raffle will be drawn on 9th February 2025 under police supervision.
Prize one is two dive courses valued at $1600 from Dive Zone.
Prize two is a Mercury Bay Escape Package including the following:
- $200 accommodation voucher from Peninsula Motel
- 2 x 2-hour pool entry including towel & robe hire to Lost Springs, Whitianga
- $100 voucher from Smitty’s Sports Bar and Grill, Whitianga
- $100 voucher from Coroglen Tavern, Coroglen
- 2 x scenic boat trips on Mercury Bay Discoveries, Whitianga
A big thank you to A2B Signs for printing the tickets for FREE. This is amazing!
We are excited and humbled by the support from our community for this. We are planning more fundraising in 2025 with a special event in March to be held in the Museum and a quiz night later in the year.
Please get in contact with Becs at the Museum (manager@mercurybaymuseum.co.nz) if you would like to know more or if you would like to support this amazing project in a different way.
