Christchurch Art Gallery, Pop-up Temporary Canterbury Museum
As there were no buses going from Te Anau to Queenstown in the morning, I had to wait for the afternoon. I got to the bus stop and waited for a few minutes until someone else joined me, and we waited together. Half an hour past the departure time we were still waiting, and now there were other people, who were waiting for a later bus. When that later bus showed up, we talked to the driver, who was confident that the afternoon bus I was supposed to be on did in fact pass through town. The only way this could’ve been possible is if that bus came in a lot earlier than it was supposed to, and didn’t bother waiting around. Annoyed and tired, me and the other traveler were able to get on that evening bus and made our way to Queenstown. After a short sleep of a few hours I made my way to the airport, and from there I took a short flight to Christchurch.
Looking for an easy start, I headed over to the art gallery. While that is generally not a big point of interest for me, I was close by to it, and there was a free guided tour available. On top of that, the weather wasn’t great and I preferred to stay indoors. When I got there, the place was almost empty. I was told by the staff members that it’s generally a lot busier, especially on weekends, but on that particular day no one else showed up for the guided tour. Having a private tour of the gallery, I was immediately informed that the first floor of the art gallery was about contemporary art, while the second floor was about more traditional art. My guide suggested that I go up to the second floor first, and then I could take my time downstairs exploring on my own. I saw no point in suggesting otherwise, and the tour has started.
My guide took me around the different rooms in the gallery and talked about different artists, art pieces, and their meaning. We only talked about a few of those, not stopping to look at every single piece, and I couldn’t tell how my guide chose which piece to talk about. Still, I was able to ask any question that came to my mind and get a satisfying answer to it. Overall I found the tour informative and enjoyable, although I did find it a bit odd that at some parts my guide read directly from some notes. I’m not sure if the notes were due to a lack of experience (which is understandable), but it still interrupted the flow of the tour. Being the only person taking the tour, I had no idea how different it could’ve been with a group of people. After the tour of the second floor was over, I thanked my guide and had a look around at the contemporary art on the ground floor. Be it for the lack of guidance or my general confusion with the displays, very quickly I saw more or less everything and left the gallery.
After a brief stop at the visitor center, I got to the temporary “pop up” Canterbury museum. The actual museum was being renovated and closed to the public, so in the meantime a temporary one was set up. I was greeted by a staff member at the entrance who invited me to have a look around and informed me about a heritage building nearby. I thanked him and made my way inside. At first it seemed like another art gallery, and upon reading a few of the signs, part of it was an art gallery, focusing on birds. I took a quick look around, a bit confused, and then I noticed another part of this pop up museum. There were some items on display, which at first glance appeared quite random. There were ancient tools next to a motorcycle, and arctic exploration tools next to a collection of animals. It took me a few minutes to figure out what’s going on, but it seemed like it was a “greatest hits” selection of displays from the museum. There were a few designs there, but not many and not as informative as I would’ve liked. The place was quite small, and I don’t think I spent more than twenty minutes there. Even though it was free to enter, I wasn’t sure it was worth it to go in at all. I felt like I learned very little from that place, almost as if I didn’t go at all.