Museum Day

Waking this morning to a chilly, rainy, windy day, I decided that this would be a day best spent inside, so I started out only a few blocks from my accommodations at the New Zealand Maritime Museum.  It's a nice place, and really well done.  They have a big collection of boats on display, mostly inside the building, ranging from little wooden sailboats to a big America's Cup racing yacht.  There was also extensive displays set up relating to emigrants and how they were enticed here, their passage and conditions and what they encountered upon arrival.  The whaling industry was a huge influence here. primarily in the 1900s, and the displays about that were extensive and well done.
Moving on, I went to the Museum of Transportation and Technology.  What a place!  It actually has buildings in two locations with old electric trams (similar to San Francisco streetcars) running a shuttle back and forth between them.  The satellite location was huge and had dozens of aircraft on display, as well as military vehicles and a small steam railroad that ran and gave short rides around the place.  The main campus was just as cool, with a massive display of stationary steam engines, fire fighting equipment and a really extensive kids area set up to teach and stimulate them.  But the best part in my opinion was a display of Leonardo DaVinci's machines.  There were miniatures or replicas constructed of all these cool ideas DaVinci had.  That man was so far ahead of his time!  Anyway, it was a really cool day and I learned a lot, and got a lot of ideas for things to do at the Michigan Railroad History Museum, but right now I am tired and going to call it a day.  G'day mates!