Tylah Harris (7), front, and Samantha Mitchell (8) find
plenty to enjoy while exploring the bunks at an Otago
Settlers Museum exhibit devoted to life aboard a sailing
ship bringing early Scottish settlers to Otago. Photo by
Peter McIntosh.
Twenty-four youngsters from the Elmgrove School, Mosgiel,
will have plenty to tell their school friends today after
"sleeping over" at the Otago Settlers Museum last night.
The visiting pupils dressed up in 19th-century period
costumes during an educational session at the museum
yesterday afternoon, and some of them later also spent the
night in wooden bunks in the museum's popular "Across the
Ocean Waves" exhibition.
Other pupils slept elsewhere in the museum.
This interactive exhibition, which opened to the public in
2004, introduces visitors to the sights and sounds, as well
as the extremely cramped conditions in sleeping quarters,
aboard sailing ships bringing early European immigrants to
Otago in the 19th century.
Museum exhibitions team leader Jennifer Evans said it was the
first time school pupils had spent the night in the museum's
simulated ship sleeping quarters, after a request from school
authorities.
Cruise-ship visitors had also experienced the exhibition
yesterday as part of a museum presentation about Dunedin's
"Scottish story".
The cruise-ship passengers were struck by the contrast
between the comfortable conditions in which they were
travelling and the conditions aboard the early migrant ships.
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