DJ Robin on the steampunk organ

If that doesn’t entice us inside then nothing will! We walk into the dimly lit room of the gallery, with certain sections lit up with coloured lights. Not only does this make the place extremely atmospheric, but it forces us to get up close to discover some of the weird, wacky and wonderful art and play with the interactive pieces. First of which is the coolest Goddamn organ ever! Robin gets on the keys, surrounded by the organ pipes and speakers found on old vinyl players. Instead of the dramatic tones of a church organ, the keys play some sick beats, bro! It turns you into a steampunk DJ! (And it’s not our first time DJing in New Zealand, let us tell you!)

Scrap metal animals and sci-fi machinery

Man, we could talk all day about the art on display here at Steampunk HQ. Even when you think you have discovered it all, you’ll find that there was a man dog with its nose pierced with a bull ring hiding between two dentist chairs in front of a control panel that fires up whatever your imagination tells you it fires up. Even the dim lights are actually held by hands coming out of the wall! A transparent section of the floor reveals a scene beneath you with projecting screens and more machinery on the floor below us.

Hanging from the ceiling of the next room is the sculpture of a stingray welded together with scrap metal – one of many animal metal sculptures found in this room. The most prominent of which is a gorilla on top of a tangle of pipes. A sign invites you to walk inside this pipe shelter to see what creepiness lies inside…

From inside the portal!

The Portal

Before heading out to The Yard, there is one more intriguing-looking room we want to visit: The Portal. The instructions on the wall tell us to press a large red button, enter the room, and close the door behind us… Ok, then…

We walk into a room encased with mirrors creating the illusion that the room infinitely expands. Lines of lights hang from the ceiling shaped like skulls, grenades and all sorts. At the moment, the lights are white. Then the room goes dark and the show begins. We won’t ruin it for you, but we can definitely see why they call it “The Portal”.

Badass vehicles in the yard

The Yard is full of the big boys’ toys! The stuff that probably wouldn’t fit inside Steampunk HQ, mostly consisting of modified buses, steam rollers, a canon-type thing and a badass motorbike. You can go inside these vehicles, on top of these vehicles, and take some mean photos with these vehicles. It’s an awesome end to such a unique gallery!