A few years ago I wrote a couple of articles for the magazine asking the question – what were the smallest toy soldiers that had been produced by a major manufacturer? On a recent tour of New Zealand this theme came to mind when I was confronted with the opposite side of the spectrum. Te Papa is the country’s National Museum. Based in the capital, Wellington, it is a major tourist attraction, focused on telling the story of the country in terms of geology, political, social and natural history.
Housed in a state of the art building, the various exhibitions illustrate how the islands that make up the country have been formed over millions of years, as well as the more recent impact of humans on the country, firstly through the migration of Polynesian people in the early part of the 2nd millennium, and more recently the “discovery” of New Zealand by western explorers and subsequent colonisation.
However, the key attraction as far as I was concerned was a special exhibition produced to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign in 2016. The exhibition, was created by Te Papa, working closely with Weta Workshop (which came to fame as part of the Peter Jackson team that developed the Lord of the Rings film trilogy).
Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War features the stories of eight New Zealanders, brought to life on a monumental scale. The giant figures of seven servicemen and a nurse, frozen in a moment in time, are on a scale of 2.4:1 ! These must surely be the largest model soldiers in the world!
The exhibition also includes cutting edge technology which has been used to create other visitor experiences relating to the Gallipoli campaign and the contribution of New Zealand to the Great War in general. This includes 3-D maps and projections, as well as many other smaller scale models, dioramas, and a range of interactive experiences.
Originally scheduled to close in 2019, the exhibition is still proving a huge draw for visitors, with over 5 million visitors since its opening in 2015 (almost the size of the total population of New Zealand!). Originally intended to be in place for only four years, it has now been extended to 2032 (although it will be closed from Monday 21 July – Friday 12 Sept 2025 for essential maintenance).
The giant sculptures took a staggering 24,000 hours to create, and countless hours were spent researching their rich histories, each based on the real experiences of the figures portrayed. For anyone with an interest in military history visiting New Zealand it is a must see!