Celebrating our UNESCO connections in Waitaki

By Ōtepoti He Puna Auaha | Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature | Posted: Monday Aug 24, 2026

Ōtepoti UNESCO City of Literature was delighted to support the celebrations in Duntroon as the newly refurbished Museum of the Vanished World reopened its doors, marking an exciting new chapter for the Waitaki Whitestone UNESCO Global Geopark.

The reopening follows a significant redevelopment of the museum, with new displays, storyboards and interactive touch screens bringing the region's remarkable fossil heritage to life.

As Aotearoa New Zealand's first UNESCO Global Geopark, Waitaki Whitestone is a wonderful example of what communities can achieve when they come together to protect, celebrate and share the stories written into their landscape. It was a pleasure to be there in support as the Waitaki community showcased to its UNESCO visitors not only a beautifully renewed museum, but the energy and care that continues to underpin its Geopark status.

There is a natural connection between the UNESCO Global Geopark and our UNESCO City of Literature. Waitaki Whitestone celebrates the region's geological and cultural heritage, while Ōtepoti UNESCO City of Literature celebrates our city's literary heritage and the power of words, books and storytelling. Both, in their own ways, are about telling the stories of a place.

At the Museum of the Vanished World, those stories are written into ancient marine fossils and limestone formations, recording a time some 25 to 30 million years ago when the Waitaki region lay beneath a shallow sea. The redeveloped exhibition helps visitors connect scientific knowledge with a genuine sense of wonder about the place we live in — precisely the kind of storytelling we love to champion, whatever form it takes.

It felt fitting to showcase some of our City of Literature publications to a place so deeply grounded in natural heritage including The Heat is On: Young Writers on the Climate Crisis, exploring environmental change through the perspectives of young writers; Biodiversity and the Webs of Life (with Enviroschools), highlighting the interconnectedness of species and ecosystems and Layers of Identity (with OAR FM), which celebrates the voices and stories of Ōtepoti rangatahi. Together, they reflect some of the ways Ōtepoti UNESCO City of Literature supports storytelling that helps us understand ourselves, our environment and the world around us.

The visit also highlighted the ways in which UNESCO-designated places can support and promote one another. Ōtepoti and Waitaki are close neighbours, with many natural connections between our communities — from geology and history to books, writers and storytelling. We share a strong interest in celebrating the stories that make this part of Aotearoa so special, and are particularly excited about the forthcoming book by Ōtepoti author and geologist Brian Miller, The Waitaki Whitestone UNESCO Global Geopark (Lifelogs), due out in early 2027. The 128-page, richly illustrated book is the result of several years’ research and traces the region’s remarkable geological story — a wonderful example of the many ways our two communities connect, and a fitting companion to the museum.

We were thrilled to support such an important occasion and to celebrate the wonderful work being done by the Waitaki Whitestone UNESCO Global Geopark and the Vanished World community.

Congratulations to everyone at the Waitaki Whitestone Geopark Trust and the wider Vanished World community on bringing the museum into this exciting new chapter.