New exhibition at Mangawhai

The Snapshots of the Olympics – a New Zealand Story exhibition opened at the Mangawhai Museum last week.

It tells the story of each of New Zealand’s gold medal-winning Olympians since the first Kiwis attended in 1912 as part of an Australasian team. It starts with swimmer Malcolm Champion and ends with sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke.

Curators Bev Ross and Christine Bygrave visited gold-winning windsurfer Barbara Kendall as part of their research.

She has loaned two Olympic torches and uniform jackets for the exhibition. Ms Kendall formerly had a holiday home in Mangawhai and practiced in the estuary.

Mangawhai local Dave Norris also assisted. He competed in the Olympics in 1960 in the triple jump event and went on to manage the New Zealand Olympic team, before becoming a commentator.

Some other tales in the exhibition include the story of New Zealand’s first team uniform – a black singlet. It also chronicles the first ever Olympics held in Ancient Greece in 776 BC and the first modern Olympics in 1886.

There is a video documentary featuring Murray Halberg, Peter Snell, John Walker, Mark Todd and Barbara Kendall.

The temporary exhibition coincides with the Tokyo Olympics, which if held as planned in 2020 would have been 100 years since New Zealanders first sent an independent team to the Olympics.

The museum is hosting day programmes during the school holidays along with the exhibition on July 13, 14, 20 and 21.

Local organisations, including Sustainable Kaipara, Mangawhai Shed and Mangawhai Artists will be doing crafts with children.

To enrol, call Mangawhai Museum: on 431 4645.