New Zealand Pavilion: An Oceanic Legend

LEGENDS FROM THE PACIFIC: New Zealand Pavilion (GUO CHANGYAO)

The New Zealand Pavilion has the theme of "Cities of Nature: Living Between the Land and Sky." Today, 86 percent of New Zealanders live in cities.

The pavilion looks like a wedge between a plaza at the ground level and a white canopy. The plaza represents the earth, and the white canopy stands for the sky. The white poles supporting the canopy symbolize forests.

The pavilion's design is inspired by a Maori myth about the origin of the world. The legend says that at the world's inception, Rangi, the sky father, and Papa, the earth mother, embraced each other so tightly that no light could shine into the world. Their children, the gods, tried to separate their parents so that they could let light through. Only Tane, the God of Forests and All Living Creatures succeeded. He laid on his back and pushed his parents apart with his strong legs. Tane brought light into the world that we live in today. Tane's statue is at the pavilion's entrance, and visitors walk between Tane's arms to enter the pavilion.

Inside the pavilion, visitors can experience a day in the life of a New Zealand family, presented with modern film technology. The day starts with a girl's dream of Rangi and Papa at her home in Auckland. The girl then goes to school and draws her dream on paper, and then returns home to show the drawing to her parents and grandparents.

The special effects team for the film The Lord of the Rings shows the vibrant life of New Zealand to visitors in the pavilion.