A trip to the Museum, and some news

OK guys well for all of you who don't know I live pretty close to Auckland, New Zealand's largest city and one of its former capitals. Due to both Easter weekend and schools taking a day off on Tuesday we decided that on Tuesday to go up to the Auckland war Memorial Museum, which is general museum with a large section devoted to conflicts in which New Zealanders have given their lives.

To kick things off I'll show you the pictures I took on my phone... they are crap and I would have prefered to have used my actual camera but oh well.

The old front of the Museum. New Zealand lost 1.64% of its population in WW1 a higher loss per head of population than most other countries in WW1!

we all know the lines. but this is one of the most beautiful ways to display them don't you think?

 Now we go inside to the Museum... and one of the first things we find is a model! YAY! I forgot what it was about, trust my luck to forget that, but I think (a real guess) that this diorama shows a Maori Pa from Auckland... I may be very wrong but it is only a guess

sorry the glass made these photo's terrible

 unfortunately taking these photos though glass has made them look bad.

my apologies

 Now onto the war stuff... the rest of the museum is great but up on the third level you can find out about the conflicts in which New Zealand fought. Now let me me support little New Zealand here, so often when we look at WW1 and WW2 we forget about poor New Zealand.... BUT Even more so for the Korean war and the Vietnam war! New Zealand is either not remembered because she is small and overlooked or Australia takes every scenario where the ANZAC's  fought and then saying that any crucial moment in the fighting was carried out by Australians... some even claim they lost more per-population in WW1 than New Zealand which is also a false claim. It makes me very upset as this denies almost the men who gave their lives their right to the honour they deserve. Please let us now always remember the little guys from the other nations who take part in wars. if it was not for the New Zealanders... the second battle of El Alamien could have been very different, for it was they and who made that all important charge.

TO start the war section I shall show you something that should at once be recognisable! the V1, the worlds first cruise missile. aparently during near the end of the war one of these hit (near?) the village my dad grew up in destroying part of it (I think so anyway)

ignore the crappy base... this cannon is very special! it fought at the battle of Waterloo!

 Now here is a fact I bet only a few of you knew... the best pilot of the battle of Britain was a New Zealander! yes that is right, the proudest moment for my country, and yet the best pilot was not even from my country.

a spitfire... renovated. I do believe its meant to represent the Kiwi's plane

They also have a Japanese Zero, but I didn't get to see that

this scene represents the New Zealanders fighting at Monte Cassino. they fought hard here, its one of the few battles where you will always here about them

Trial by Fire! the story of the New Zealanders in Crete. a famous battle for all the Kiwi soldiers their but also for the famous Maori Battalion, who earned the deep respect off all the other allied soldiers, for their bravery and skill

a little naval scene here a 20mm Oerlikon Anti-Aircraft gun, Originally from Switzerland but used by pretty much everyone in WW2. It's still used by many countries today even though its design comes from 1914

 Well that is it from the Museum, I hope you like it. oh and I have some cool news the T-90A arrived today so perhaps I shall paint it up over the weekend or during the upcoming holidays :-D but for now Have a good day/night and I leave you with a pretty picture I took yeasterday morning.

there we are. have a nice time everyone.