Te Whare Tapere is the interpretive gallery within the Te Puia experience. Its purpose is to orient visitors to the world of the Te Arawa tribe in Rotorua. We used three large multi-user interactives to locate the visitor in the worlds of the marae, landscape and music and supplemented these with topic specific interactives and displays. The space is designed to support a large number of visitors, and as a tool for guides to use on their tours.

The Nature table is an example of a multi-user interactive surface. Its aim is to orient the visitor to the Whakarewarewa landscape, and show how the landscape is literally layered with stories. The visitor touches items of interest on a relief surface, and video and text is directed to their precise location. The visitor can also interact with the table to play with steam erupting from geysers in the valley, and create wind effects with their hands.

The music table component is a playful activity that allows the visitor to be creative and contribute to the experience of others in the gallery.

The visitors are able to create their own song by adjusting the volume of each instrument. Several visitors can interact with the table at the same time and take control of different instruments. All sounds are created specifically to work together and when combined form a pleasant song that fills the gallery with a visitor created ambience.

This series of interactives uses 3-dimensional models of traditional houses to tell stories and legends.

3D Models of traditional weapons are brought to life by showing them in use by martial arts experts.

A high definition fly-over terrain model locates visitors in the geothermal region of New Zealand.