Switching on the lights at Rotorua Museum. 16 September 2016 Daily Post photograph by Stephen Parker
Switching on the lights at Rotorua Museum. 16 September 2016 Daily Post photograph by Stephen Parker
With a flick of a switch one of Rotorua's most iconic buildings shone brightly against the dark sky - in all the colours of the rainbow.
The long anticipated outdoor colour LED lighting upgrade of the Rotorua Museum has been completed, thanks to funding from the Rotorua Museum Centennial Trust,enabling a vast array of lighting effects on the building at the flick of a switch.
The official "flicking of the switch" was performed by Rotorua MP Todd McClay tonight.
"I think it's a great occasion. It [the museum] was New Zealand's first investment in tourism ever. It's a beautiful building and it deserves to be in the limelight.
"I think it is magnificent that we can now say it is complete," he said.
Museum director Stewart Brown said the building could be lit up in hundreds of different colours.
"I'm really excited, it will bring the Government Gardens to life. It's something for the locals and the tourists."
Te Arawa kaumatua Sir Toby Curtis said he thought the lights were a wonderful idea.
"It [the museum] is a landmark that is really appreciated during the day, now it's going to be appreciated at night as well so it will become an esteemed landmark," he said.
The lighting upgrade signals the final phase of the $22 million Centennial Project which began in 2006 with the museum's viewing platform, then in September 2011 with the completion of the Don Stafford wing.
Similar to other iconic buildings like Auckland's Museum and Sky Tower, and international landmarks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the museum can now be illuminated to mark significant occasions.
