Te Papa

The national New Zealand museum, Te Papa, turned 10 years old on Saturday. Te Papa means "our place" in Maori. Not being totally in the loop quite yet, I only managed to make it down to the celebrations later in the day. I caught the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, which was fantastic. 7 ukuleles and a bass player to keep the time, covering New Zealand folk and rock hits. I did manage to sing along to the Crowded House numbers. The room they performed in was packed - initially they were supposed to play outside but the rain was pouring down so for safety's sake they had to play inside. They managed to bust it out to the whole room unamped, since the switch was last minute and there was no sound equipment set-up. It seems that ukuleles are destined to join my love-list of quirky musical instruments, which includes accordions and kazoos.

Following the ukulele orchestra, we all had to back-up a bit so we wouldn't suffer the fate of being trampled by Real Hot Bitches. They are ordinary ladies by day but by evening they don spandex and lots of eyeshadow and dance it out to the power chords of the 80's. It was hilarious, sometimes shocking, and definitely fun. Where do I sign up and get a unitard and some fishnets?

What did any of this have to do with New Zealand's history? I'm not sure, but it was a fun party in a museum with free cake, so I'm not arguing.