Description:

The Buried Village of Te Wairoa virtual reality experience was created to expose a moment in history that has long captivated Aotearoa New Zealand and the wider world — the tragic destruction of the Pink and White Terraces and nearby villages by the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886. The experience was commissioned as a permanent installation for the Te Wairoa Museum to deepen cultural engagement and storytelling through innovative immersive technology.

Grounded in real events, it tells the story of a community whose lives were permanently altered by a natural disaster, focusing not just on loss but also on resilience and heroism. The visitor takes on the role of a nineteenth century tourist, meeting the characters who operated tourist services of the time, experiencing the glory of the terraces first hand, and feeling the force of destruction as if they were there on that fateful night.

The Te Wairoa Museum, sought to increase visitation, modernise its engagement strategy, and offer something unmatched in Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural tourism sector. Market research showed an increasing demand for experiential storytelling and educational entertainment, particularly among younger, tech-savvy tourists and educators. In response, this experience was designed to transform passive museum-goers into active historical participants. On a strategic level, the installation expands the museum’s offerings for visitors. By embedding a rich narrative in cutting-edge technology, the project supports transformational change in how history is taught and felt, using storytelling to turn historical data into visceral memory.

Walking out into the museum following the experience, the visitor is confronted by real objects they held in virtual reality moments ago. Walking onto the grounds the visitor stands in the environment they travelled to in virtual reality, 140 years later. In this way the experience adds context and emotional resonance to the museum itself. The Buried Village of Te Wairoa VR bridges past and future, culture and technology, memory and imagination. It is both an educational tool and a powerful emotional journey, encouraging deeper reflection on our place in the natural world — and what it means to lose and preserve history.