Auckland Museum held its annual ‘Explorama’ event over the weekend of 29th and 30th March. Held in the atrium this event captures people’s interest as they enter and exit the museum, placing them in the role of a scientist looking at a diverse range of topics from fossils to tarantula to kauri dieback.
The kauri dieback programme was represented at the Auckland Council Biosecurity table. A microscope showing kauri dieback spores proved very fascinating to visitors young and old, many could not believe that something so small could kill a tree so large and majestic as the kauri.
A fact that caught many people's attention was that kauri dieback spores can survive in the soil on your footwear for at least five years, and that similar diseases around the world could survive for 30 years plus! This helped to reinforce the message of cleaning your footwear and equipment before and after visiting kauri forests.
The public's awareness of kauri dieback seemed quite high with the vast majority of people knowing about kauri dieback and the need to have clean footwear entering and exiting kauri forest. This may have been due to the recent discovery of kauri dieback in the Coromandel, or the interests of people who visit museums, but either way, the word is getting out that we need to act together to keep kauri standing.