Halloween will arrive early at Hamilton’s Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato with a series of spooky events to be held on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 October 2022.
‘Spooky Stories from the Waikato’ is a walking tour aimed at entertaining adults with spine-tingling local tales, while the ‘Kooky Spooky Kids Tour’ provides a romp around the Museum for tamariki.
“Our team has had a lot of fun coming up with these themed events and we can’t wait to share them with the community,” said Liz Cotton, Director of Museum and Arts, Waikato Museum.
“Although the celebration of Halloween may have Northern Hemisphere connotations, we’ve put a uniquely local stamp on the weekend. It’s a great excuse to enjoy dressing up and storytelling.”
For grown-ups looking for a Halloween thrill, the one-hour walking tour on Friday night is an opportunity to hear some unusual tales from Hamilton’s past, starting at Waikato Museum and heading off around the immediate area. ‘Spooky Stories from the Waikato’ consists of a mix of local history and urban legends, including UFO sightings in Raglan and ‘crop circles’ in Ngatea. Spaces are limited for this one-off event and bookings are open now.
The content has been developed by Waikato Museum Curator, Dr Nadia Gush, who specialises in social history and has a particular interest in unearthing forgotten narratives.
“These were stories that were quite well known at the time, events that couldn’t quite be explained, experiences that defied logic - and the fantastic thing is we still don’t really know what happened.”
In contrast, Saturday will consist of kid-friendly adventures inside the Museum, suitable for primary-school aged children and their whaanau. This whimsical tour will wind around the galleries in search of Peka, a cheerful pekapeka-tou-roa (native long-tailed bat). There are four ‘Kooky Spooky Kids Tour’ sessions running throughout the day and bookings are open now.