How do you transport the national treasures of New Zealand? "Very, very carefully!" laughs Alistair Hogg, Relocations Manager of Freear Philip Ltd.

Moving Te Papa was no ordinary shift. It took FPL - Relocations 14 months from conception to completion and many late nights pondering the best ways to tackle the next days challenges. "Nothing like this had ever been done before so we had to come up with new ways of moving items that were totally unique, requiring a special approach each time."

This move has been claimed as the biggest of its kind in Australasia and it obviously took some effort.

"But we knew exactly how we were going to do this shift even before we submitted our tender for the move" says Danny O’Hagan, FPL’s Managing Director. "In order to submit a fair and accurate costing we had to know exactly what was to be moved and exactly how we were going to do it. This job encompassed everything that Freear Philip is about. Our architect designed special trolleys and equipment, our builders made them and our shiftees did the move."

Was anything more challenging to move? "They were all very challenging, but the Waka was rather tricky. We had to use a crane to get it out of a 1st floor window and into a fourth floor window at Cable Street."

The cultural insight associated with moving these treasures was also significant. "With our staff coming from a range of cultural backgrounds, everyone involved took great pride in their jobs. We had special T shirts made for the team involved and some still wear them today. We presented a shirt to each Collection Manager at the completion of their stage and one is actually in Te Papa in a collection. That is really special."

And when it was all done, what did you do Alistair? "We had a couple of Beers." What better way to finish moving New Zealand.