I really like the new interior, with the offices turned into a massive wooden ball though.

Pacific Islands



Pacific Islands

Given that this is a New Zealand Museum, the Pacific Islands section is quite large and has a decent range of different artefacts.

Maori



Maori

The ground floor Maori exhibit is the first of 2 sections relating to the history of Maoris - the second is the "Maori Natural History" section on the first floor. This section on the ground is the biggest and has all of the old Maori buildings - some of which you can go into so long as you remove your shoes before hand.

Encounter



Encounter

This area has clothes and furniture made in New Zealand, starting the 1800s to more modern examples. They have a large enough collection, including enough older pieces, that I find it an interesting part of the museum that looks at the items that people would have actually used or worn every day. (That said I am biased prefer the items that are 100 or more years old, as they seem more "museumy" to me).

Wild Child



Wild Child

This area is the children's themed section, with a strong focus on old toys of course. Among the other displays in this section there is the stuffed elephant I remember previously being in the section dedicated to Natural History and full of animals, and a tree house that can with a small display in the middle. One of my nieces loved the tree house as it's possible to get inside it and climb up to a tiny section part of the way up the tree house...

Music



Music

This section is tiny, especially when compared other parts of the museum! It is full of a wide variety of different instruments, but to an untrained eye most of them look exactly the same as modern instruments and aren't that interesting to look at.

Level 1

Arts of Asia



Arts of Asia

I actually like this part of the museum, the cloth and clothes on display are all very nice - I don't think my photos do them credit, especially for the items inside the glass displays. But, again, it's one of the small sections of the museum.

Origins



Origins

This is one of the 3 sections, including the "Land" and the "Coastal" sections, which look at the natural environment in New Zealand. This section also includes things the dinosaur skeletons which obviously are not from here, unlike the Moa recreations...

Land



Land

This is one of the 3 sections, including the "Origins" and the "Coastal" sections, which look at the natural environment in New Zealand. The stuffed birds I remember from going to the museum as a child are spread out in this section and in the "Coastal" sections. But this part does have an interesting part on glow worms.

Coastal



Coastal

This is one of the 3 sections, including the "Origins" and the "Land" sections, which look at the natural environment in New Zealand. The stuffed birds I remember from going to the museum as a child are spread out in this section and in the "Land" sections. This is one of the parts of the museum which has living animals in it, in this case starfish.

Ancient Worlds



Ancient Worlds

Compared to other international museum's collections, this area is very small. But it's still interesting if very limited.

Maori Natural History



Maori Natural History

This area is about the cultural aspects of Maori heritage, which looks at the ways that Maoris have traditionally viewed the world around them and how certain items made by them have fitted into their world view.

Level 2

Auckland 1866



Auckland 1866

This has been one of my favourite parts of the museum since I was a child and is part I always go to, despite the fact that it hasn't been changed for the most part since it was first set up in 1966. This a street set up with houses and various shops along the lines of the houses and shops found in Auckland 1866, and is a separate "street" where you move from "building" to "building" along the street.

WW1/Boer War/NZ Wars



WW1/Boer War/NZ Wars

This area has separate sections for the New Zealand Wars, the Boer War and for the first World War, but they are part of a larger continues section that looks at the main wars New Zealand has been involved with and runs into the section on the second World War.

WWII Hall of Memories



WWII Hall of Memories

This area is a long hall which has a list of the men who died during World War II on the walls.

Spitfire



Spitfire

This is a World War II Spitfire, which has a walk way around part of the room allowing people to walk around the plane and look down at it.

Armory



Armory

This is a small collection of old firearms.

Special Exhibitions

Special Exhibitions

This page lists all of the temporary exhibitions held by the Auckland Museum.

Auckland Museum Map

Auckland Museum Map - Back

Other Auckland Museum related links on this site



Auckland Domain - this is the park around the Auckland Museum

Auckland Museum - 2013 photos - this is my orginal page

Auckland Museum related links not on this site

