“Better than Te Papa” are the words that Te Hikoi Operations Manager Karyn Owen has used to describe the Riverton museum's latest offering: self-guided audio tours for visitors to hire.

The tours are available in nine languages: English, Te Reo Maori, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, French, Cantonese, Portuguese, and German.

“This is great for people who don’t like reading a lot of information, and want a voice to tell them some of the stories as they head on their journey around our museum,” Ms Owen said.

This project has been made possible thanks to funding from Stout Trust for the handheld devices, donations of recording time and equipment by Darren Ludlow and Radio Southland, and South Coast Productions loan of recording equipment.

Considerable expertise from Oraka Aparima Runaka made it possible to provide the experience in Te Reo Maori.

Integral to the Mandarin translations has been Chinese SIT student Rocky Hu and one of his fellow students. Venture Southland also provided assistance, and numerous individuals also donated their time to become the voice of the museum.

“We decided on what languages to focus on based on which tour operators said they would bring groups if we had other languages, looking at which languages we should offer due to the content in our displays, as well as which languages are potential growth markets for us in the future," Ms Owen said.

Ms Owen acknowledged Southland’s community was becoming increasingly diverse, and this was a great way to help newcomers feel welcomed and get educated on the local area.

Te Hikoi also plans to introduce other languages to the devices as they secure funding for them.

“We will also change some of our information and signage to reflect our ability to cater to different languages too. We have already had positive feedback from inbound tour operators who would like to visit if we can cater to their customers’ language”.

The audio devices are available for hire for $13 (includes museum entry).