Butterfly House/Museum

While we were in Dunedin, we went to the Otago Museum. Most of the museum is free, but we paid to go to the science center, which includes a Butterfly House. We got there in time to see the daily release of newly-hatched butterflies. There are three stories, and the temperature rises from comfortable at the bottom to hot and steamy at the top, to mimic a tropical rain forest. We enjoyed seeing so many unusual butterflies! Everyone enjoyed letting butterflies rest on their hand: Little Miss,

Mr. Diligence,

Gayle,

yours truly,

Miss Joy,

and Mr. Sweetie.

A red-eared slider lived in a small pond on the bottom level. This was special to us because my sister in America has a terrarium with eight of these turtles that they accidentally dug up.

Before we went in, we checked out these acoustic disks. They are about 50 feet apart. If you whisper into the center of one, from a few feet away, the whisper is easily heard at the other one, or anywhere in between.

I followed Miss Joy around while the other three children who were with us hung out with Gayle. She enjoyed playing with this exhibit, shaping a river bed and seeing the water flow through it.

Gayle grabbed these two pictures in the Animal Attic section of the museum.