
Quiz: How well do you know your New Zealand birds?
Do you know the difference between a hihi and a huia? Or how many species of kiwi there are in NZ? Put your native bird knowledge to the test.
Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Open every day 10am-6pm
(except Christmas Day)
Free museum entry for New Zealanders and people living in New Zealand
Phar Lap was a legendary racehorse and an adored animal hero for a generation of people in New Zealand. You can pay your respects to his bones here, in the country he was born.
Permanent exhibition
Level 4, near stairs
Free with museum entry
All ages
5 minutes
Phar Lap started life on a stud farm near Timaru in 1926. His breeder sent him to the Trentham yearling sales in early 1928. Harry Telford, a New Zealand horse trainer in Sydney, spotted Phar Lap in the sale catalogue, and liked the look of his pedigree. He didn't have any money to buy the horse, so he got David J Davis, an American living in Sydney, to put up the purchase price – 160 guineas.
In the autumn of 1930 started his legendary string of successes – he won thirty-three of the remaining thirty-five races in his career.
Horse, Equus caballus, collected 05 Apr 1932, Menlo Park, California, United States of America. Gift of DJ Davis and HR Telford, 1932. CC BY-NC-ND licence. Te Papa (LM000760)
The punters loved Phar Lap, and he invariably started as odds-on favourite. Others were not so keen – someone, possibly a bookmaker, tried to shoot him as he returned from track work one morning in November 1930. He went on to win the Melbourne Stakes that day and the Melbourne Cup, easily, three days later.
The distribution of his remains reflects the claims on him by both Australia and New Zealand. His heart and his hide went to Australia. The heart, at 6.3 kilograms extraordinarily large by horse standards, is in a bottle in Canberra. The hide is mounted on a model of Phar Lap in Melbourne Museum. His bones came back to New Zealand, and are with us here at Te Papa.
Melbourne Museum’s Phar Lap exhibition page
National Museum of Australia’s Phar Lap collection online
Do you know the difference between a hihi and a huia? Or how many species of kiwi there are in NZ? Put your native bird knowledge to the test.
Learn about the unique shoes Peter Snell wore when he won gold in the 800m race at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
What would a New Zealand photography collection be without pictures of rugby? From local paddocks to packed stadiums, we’ve always taken snaps of our national game. Here are some of our favourites from Te Papa’s collection.
There are some bizarre looking fish that live in the depths of New Zealand's waters. Take the quiz and expand your ugly fish knowledge.