What's on at Taupō Museum

Solar Tsunamis – Parawhenua Kōmaru allows visitors to get hands-on with magnets, play with a plasma ball, generate electricity, make an aurora, and much more.

Developed by Tūhura Otago Museum, Solar Tsunamis – Parawhenua Kōmaru explores the science of space weather and explains how a phenomenon that produces our awesome aurora could also cripple our electricity and communication systems.

Interesting, interactive, and educational, this exhibition will teach visitors why space weather poses these risks and how an international research collaboration led by the University of Otago is preparing Aotearoa New Zealand’s response to a hazard that is out of this world.

Solar Tsunamis – Parawhenua Kōmaru runs from Saturday 14 December to Monday 27 January in Taupō Museum’s main gallery.

A photo can transport you back to a moment in time, it can paint a thousand words, and it can vividly tell a story.

From 21 December to 27 January, a wide range of photos will be displayed at the Taupō Museum as part of the Taupō Camera Club’s self-titled exhibition.

The exhibition is designed to help create awareness of the club, and showcase the technicalities and skills to take high-quality, dramatic photographs. The photos presented show an eye for seeing the beauty in our everyday environment.

For anyone interested in joining the club, there will be an opening evening at 5.30pm on Friday 20 December where people can come in and see what they do and meet the members in person.

The exhibition, being held in the musem’s Niven Room, includes work from members with varying levels of skill and experience.

The Taupō Camera Club began in the 1950s and the members have one thing in common, a passion for the art of photography. The club’s members have a wide range of skills, from keen amateurs to professional photographers, and all are cooperative and encouraged to learn and improve their photographic skills.

For the exhibition, club members were asked to submit a photograph to be displayed without any common theme or guidance. The result is an exhibition that is sure to catch the eye and take visitors on many journeys.