The labels are chosen ...

With the lure of brownies and Charlotte's delicious pavlova to tempt them, the Ruru team came together last week to choose which Ruru Revolution Mark II labels were SO amazing that they just had to be turned into long term labels and displayed in our museum galleries.

Glen surveyed the short-listed labels from Taranaki Life while Charlotte tallied up the favourites from Takapou Whariki ... 

Look at all those labels!

Charlotte sampled her delectable pavlova ... and luckily she got it down before the fire alarm interrupted us!

In the end, the team chose 27 labels of literary prowess to put on display.  We're now in the process of getting the labels printed, informing the writers, inviting them to the label launch party on Sunday 29 September at 3pm and THEN writing some brand new scavenger hunts.  Only 66 days until you can try them out ... so the countdown is on!

Plastered with post-it notes ... again!

They came, they saw and they wrote 414 post-it labels in 3 hours!  Sunday's Ruru Revolution Mark II was a magnificent success with well over 150 people joining in the fun.  They wrote loads of incredibly creative labels, they made Ruru super hero accessories, they scavenger hunted around the galleries and generally had a fabulous time.  Check out the photographic proof below ...

The foyer was buzzing ...

Charlotte rewarded our most avid label writers, Selina and Matt (who stayed for the whole three hours!), with their prized gold Ruru badges ...

Ella Simpson - a repeat Revolutionary - carried on in her poem-writing tradition, writing at least 10 rhyming labels ...

Some of our staff Revolutionaries got up close and personal with the Armstrong gun!

Lucy, winner of our Ruru t-shirt competition, proudly wore the goods as she wrote labels.

And Lottie Moffat decided Linley was her favourite object!

There was also plenty of creativity to be found in the Super Hero Corner ...

Check out some of the amazing labels that were written on the day:

And now the work begins!  The Ruru team will select the best post-its from the Revolution event and turn them into long term labels, write new scavenger hunts based on those labels, then invite the label writers back to Puke Ariki for a celebration.  We can't wait to see our new Revolutionary friends again!

Get ready for the Ruru Revolution Mark II!

It's official!  Our next Revolution event is happening on Sunday 14 July 2013 from 10am-1pm.  Now is your chance to take over the museum ...

We invite you (and everyone you know) to pick up a post-it (like Jess and Matt did) ...

Write an AWESOME label about an object or display in our museum galleries (like Ella did) ...

Collect a GOLD Ruru badge (like loads of people did) ...

Make some Ruru-inspired goodies (like these guys did) ...

And make the Puke Ariki staff happy (like they were last time)!

And, of course, your post-it might be turned into a long term label and incorporated into a new Ruru I Digress ... scavenger hunt (like the work of these talented label writers was)!

So, we hope to see you there!  Viva la revolution!!!

A brand new scavenger hunt ... thanks to Alice!

Yeah, you're right, it's been pretty quiet on the Ruru front for a while.  But since our last blog, more than 1,500 scavenger hunts have been done by avid Ruru fans ... which is amazing if you ask us!

And now, thanks to the ever-creative and talented Alice Franklin, we have a new Ruru scavenger hunt!  Alice's trail, called I Digress ... on all things natural, takes in some of the kid-friendly, colourful things on offer in Discover It!, Puke Ariki's dedicated children's area.  The young ones in your life can: explore what makes Moo poo; look for their favourite animal in the jungle mural; examine the kite Te Ao wrote a beautiful Ruru label about; and more.  Their reward?  A Ruru sticker of course!

Thank you Alice for all your brilliant work.

Also, as a heads up, there is another Ruru Revolution public label writing event being planned - yet another chance to make your mark!  What will YOU write about?  Meg the Megalodon shark?  The moa?  Ferdie the Bull?  Or something else?  You've got a few months to decide ... we'll keep you posted on the date!

Just in the nick of time ...

Just in the nick of time, the Ruru team has created its second new scavenger hunt ... in a very festive green to compliment our red one!

The new hunt is called I digress ... on all things colourful and muses on all manner of brightly (or not-so-brightly) hued heritage objects.

So give our new scavenger hunts a go and collect your Christmas-inspired red and green badge set this holiday season!

Time for a gold badge or two

Our Central School label writers dropped by the office today to collect their GOLD badges ... here they are wearing them proudly and generally looking awesome!

They also presented us with a scavenger hunt they designed all by themselves.  The Ruru team looks forward to giving it a go and seeing if we can be as speedy doing their hunt as they were doing ours!

Amazing job guys, well done!  We hope we get to work with you again next year.  And don't forget to do a new RED scavenger hunt in the school holidays!

Fully fledged!

Our amazing Ruru apprentices from Central School are now fully fledged label writers!  And what an awesome job they did too.  Check out their labels about some of Puke Ariki's precious heritage objects and the personal connections that inspired their choices:

(click on the label to make it bigger)

Our fledglings are visiting again on Wednesday to collect their very well deserved GOLD Ruru badges ... we look forward to seeing them then!