Enter a specially designed theatre, sit back in a seat that changes colour with the mood, watch the wide screens and prepare for the Taranaki Experience.

This is a captivating 12-minute multi-media theatre show that celebrates all things Taranaki.

The Taranaki Experience enables you to enjoy all aspects of life around the mountain.

Soundbites, archival films, photos and cartoons, as well as video, light, sound and music take you on an entertaining and dramatic tour of the region and its colourful history. You'll also gain a unique insight into what makes the province and its people tick.

After whizzing around the region's picturesque and varied landscape, you'll travel back in time and experience the incredible computer-animated "Gliding Mountain" tale - the Māori creation story that explains how Mount Taranaki reached its present position.

Then you'll journey through more recent history and experience dramatic moments from the past, including both Māori and Pākeha settlement, the establishment of major towns and industries and the Taranaki Wars.

You'll appreciate the enormous contribution Taranaki people made to the country's war efforts overseas, and see how the region struggled through the depression to become one of the most productive dairying areas in the world.

Celebrate the boom years of the 1950s and 1960s through often hilarious archival footage, and see how oil and gas were exploited through the 1970s and 1980s, as Taranaki became the country's energy province.

Throughout the Taranaki Experience you'll enjoy the fads and fashions of former times - from calf days to Ranfurly Shield, parades to beauty competitions.

See the people and places that makes Taranaki the exciting place it is today, and why Taranaki looks forward to an even more exciting future.

After enjoying this short multi-media show, you'll be wanting to explore the rest of Puke Ariki to find out more!

Supported by TET