Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira will open its doors to the Auckland public on Monday 31 August.

Ahead of the reopening date, the Museum has focussed on putting in place the Government Alert Level 2 guidelines. Visiting the Museum will be a slightly different experience as we work to keep visitors safe while they explore our taonga and galleries.

To ensure the safety of the Museum’s visitors and staff, on reopening, measures will be in place such as contactless, controlled entry limiting the numbers of people inside the Museum in at one time.

Dr David Gaimster, Chief Executive, Auckland Museum says, “We were heartened by Aucklanders returning to their Museum following the last lockdown, and we look forward to enjoying their support through providing them a safe environment again.”

A one-way system throughout the Museum, along with strict hygiene precautions and physical distancing of at least two metres between visitors not in the same “bubble”, will be operating.

To ensure the number of visitors does not exceed recommended numbers, visitors will be asked to register with NextUp to join a virtual queue to enter the Museum.

To enable this, Auckland Museum requests all visitors bring a fully charged mobile phone if possible. This will allow visitors to register with NextUp for a virtual queue into the Museum and to save time on the day. Auckland Museum will open safely using the NextUp registration process to contact-trace all visitors. More information about how to do this can be found here.

Satellite Media have kindly offered NextUp free-of-charge to support Auckland Museum through this reopening period where contact tracing is required.

Once inside the Museum, all visitors are requested to sign in using the official NZ COVID Tracer QR code as required by the government.

From Monday, coat and bag check-in, lockers, and water fountains will not be operating. Both the 1929 Espresso Bar and Museum Store (limited to a maximum of 10 people) will be open, accepting Paywave but no cash. It is highly recommended that people wear face masks when visiting the Museum.

The popular Weird and Wonderful and Volcanoes galleries will not open at Level 2 due to the high-touch interactive nature of these spaces, together with the Kai Room. This is a temporary safety measure and the Museum hopes to return to regular operations as soon as possible.

All school visits, public programmes and on-site events will remain suspended until further notice to ensure the safety of Museum visitors and staff.

“We are confident these new measures will ensure the Museum is a safe place to visit,” Dr Gaimster says. “We plan to open safely to the communities we serve and look forward to providing a familiar and free place for Aucklanders to visit.”

Over the Level 4 and 3 lockdowns, the Museum continued to operate behind-the-scenes, undertaking a full range of its non-public-facing activities such as caring for collections and taonga, research, digital and online initiatives, and preparation of exhibitions and development of public programmes, planning and conservation.

The Auckland Museum at Home webpage will be updated continually with new videos, articles and activities. This online hub is filled with stories, activities, videos and puzzles for the whole family to enjoy for free.

Visitors are invited to keep coming back to see what’s new and to follow Auckland Museum on social channels for updates.

© Scoop Media