Bishop Museum

This cheesy picture is me and me Brazilian friend Naomi riding on her new moped! Naomi took my place at the SLP when I left, but it didn't suit her either, and she soon left too! She got a job in a resteraunt though, so is sticking around for a while. She lives in Honolulu, so we meet up sometimes. Last week she met me from work and showed me her new bike, and we went to the Bishop Museum so I could check out the new exhibition. But not before stopping for a massive DIY icecream each at Coldstone (I had a discount voucher!)!! Unfortunately by the time we managed to get there, she had to leave for work, so I did the museum solo. Good job we had loads of fun just riding there!! Here's a selection of some of the cool artifacts I saw and snapped at the museum...

This is a close up of the hilt of a dagger made from sharks teeth, coconut husk, palm wood and human hair. Scary stuff!

This helmet is covered in feathers from native Hawaiian birds. Only high-ranking male chiefs were allowed to wear helmets like this, and this particular one is thought to have belonged to Kalani'opu'u, the chief of Hawaii (the Big Island) at the time when Captain Cook visited.

This is an ear ornament made of carved whale tooth. I'm not sure of its purpose though, whether it is purely decorative or symbolises rank of importance.

A picture carved in a sperm whale tooth.

This is one of a pair of hula rattles- worn around the ankles of men during ceremonial dances. It is made of the canine teeth of 500 dogs.

This sperm whale skeleton measures 55 feet 7inches in lenth and weighs in at approximately 4300 pounds, 3000 of which is the skull alone! As a living animal, it would have weighed around 50 tons. For some perspective, I weigh 140 pounds. This whale exhibit was completed in 1902 and was the first of its kind in the world! As you can see, half is bare skeleton, and the other half has been modeled around to show how it would have looked in the flesh. Massive!

Just look at that smiling face! In the background you can see the beautiful old museum building and its galleries.

Hawaiian peoples didn't actually hunt whales, but used their teeth and bones when they washed ashore. Sperm whales were the favoured catch of Europeans in the 19th century, and the targeted catch in the 20th century. Sperm whales have the largest brain of all living animals, weighing 20 pounds.

Next I checked out the new baby dinosaur exhibition, the main thing that had attracted me to the museum, but in the end, not nearly as entertaining as the main Hawaiian exhibition hall.

One of my favourite dinosaurs, a Parasaurolophus and nest (even the cute hatchlings moved!)

A bunch of dino-lets all going nuts (please excuse the blurring on the Diplodocus- it's head was moving rather eratically!) As you can see from this picture, the quality of the modelling wasn't great- the dinos looks rather squashy and cuddly. However the designs were good and the accompanying cartoons (see below) were a nice touch.

A flying Pteranodon.

Robo-dino! One of the exhibits was an animatronic baby dinosaur many stripped down of all skin, etc. so you could see how they work. It even had controls so you could make it move!

(Half of) A huge rainbow spreading over Hololulu I saw on my walk to the bus stop from the museum. Rainbows happen nearly every day here. And sometimes it rains when there aren't even clouds! The other day I was the closest I've ever been to a rainbows end. It was a few meters away from me, and just amazing!