Ruru goes red ... again

 

Just in time for the season of red things - strawberries, raspberries and Santa hats - the Ruru team has created a new red I Digress ... scavenger hunt!  This time we are digressing on the subject of summer holidays - on swimming and fishing and hanging out with your friends.  You know, all the good stuff!  And as always, there's an awesome Ruru badge up for grabs once you've roamed the galleries and spotted all our awesome heritage objects.  So give it a go!

 

The Ruru team is now turning its collective mind to Puke Ariki's Long Term Galleries Refresh Project.  For those of you who don't really know what that is, it's the project to change over the displays in our museum galleries ... which have been up for 10 years!  The question is, what will happen to our famous scavenger hunts when the objects on display start to change?  And where do we fit in when the kinds of experiences offered in our galleries start change too?  Well, we figure we can adapt!  As experts in providing experiences for kids and families in the museum, we plan to add our ideas into the mix.  Who knows what cool stuff we might be able to come up with?! 

 

So we're excited about 2014 and we hope you are too.  In the meantime, happy festive season to you all!

 



 

 

 

 

 

They came, they ate, they scavenger hunted!

Our fantastic Ruru label writers were the recipients of an awesome party on Sunday to celebrate their writing genius.  They got custom-made certificates, handed out by the fabulous Charlotte Stace and Linley Wellington, and they enjoyed a dazzling array of home-baking that had been specially made for them (thanks so much Ruru team!).  Then they roamed the galleries, visiting their labels and claiming brand new badges made to match the brand new scavenger hunts.  Well done everyone ... great job!  

4 year old label writer Corban Hills claims his Ruru certificate

YUM!  Look at all those treats!

Do I detect a look of anticipation on those faces in the background?

All gone!  The feeding frenzy makes short work of the Ruru cake

New labels AND scavenger hunts!

The fabulous labels that were selected from July's Ruru Revolution Mark II event are now up!  We have 27 brand new labels that muse on a range of awesome objects in Takapou Whariki, Taranaki Naturally and Taranaki Life galleries.  All 27 labels are also included in three new scavenger hunts, created especially for this Sunday's Ruru label launch party.  Our talented writers will be on site to check out the fruits of their labour and give the new hunts a go ... as well as eat some home baking!

So if you have some Ruru fans that are hanging out to do a new scavenger hunt, they're in luck these school holidays!  Send them our way!

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!