New charge for overseas visitors
A $15 entry charge was introduced for all international visitors to the Air Force Museum of New Zealand from 31 March 2025. Tickets available online or from our Welcome Desk on arrival.
We were sorry to have to charge after being free for so many years, but the charge is required to cover rising costs and to contribute to our new $16 million extension to house the newest members of our collection – our historic Hercules and Orion aircraft.
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New Exhibition
Lockheed C-130 Hercules
We are delighted to let you know that our latest exhibition - Lockheed C-130 Hercules. Come and visit and learn all about this extraordinary aircraft.
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#Extraordinaryaircraft
Help us build a home for our #extraordinaryaircraft
Our Lockheed C-130H (NZ) Hercules and P-3K2 Orion have had long-term preservation work completed so they can be safely stored while we work on plans for a new permanent exhibition space large enough to house them.
Measuring 29.8m from nose to tail, with a wingspan of 40.5m and a tail soaring to just under 11m high, the Hercules is too large for our current exhibition halls. The Orion is almost as tall and even longer – stretching to 36m thanks to its submarine-detecting tail boom.
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Exhibitions
Insights
Caldwell Gallery
From delicate pastel and crayon sketches to the brutality of a crash-damaged German bomber engine, Insights offers a tantalising peek at the breadth and depth of our collection. Like many museums, space constraints mean that only a fraction of our one million or so objects can ever be on display. It is a collection containing stories more than 100 years in the making and a source of endless fascination for the team of people who work to catalogue, conserve and care for it.
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From delicate pastel and crayon sketches to the brutality of a crash-damaged German bomber engine, Insights offers a tantalising peek at the breadth and depth of our collection. Like many museums, space constraints mean that only a fraction of our one million or so objects can ever be on display. It is a collection containing stories more than 100 years in the making and a source of endless fascination for the team of people who work to catalogue, conserve and care for it.
Our Aircraft
Explore AircraftMore to explore
NAVIGATOR EXTRAORDINAIRE: Wallis Finlay was a highly decorated navigator who survived 106 sorties into enemy territory, two thirds flying on the most dangerous of missions with the elite Pathfinder Force.
Wallis’s collection was donated in 2013 and among the items are numerous letters he wrote to his family in New Zealand. These letters give an unrivalled insight into the life of a navigator working in one of the most dangerous roles in the air force during World War Two.
When his extended family gathered in Christchurch for a family reunion recently, our Keeper of Photographs Matthew O'Sullivan put together a presentation about his collection so the younger generation could learn all about his story.
Read his story, in his own words, here: airforcemuseum.co.nz/blog/navigator-extraordinaire-the-story-of-wallis-finlay/
The photo is from the Wallis Finlay collection and is of No. 109 Squadron ground crew in front of Mosquito HS-H at RAF Station Little Staughton. Image: ALB1307612052 ... See MoreSee Less
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OPEN ALL EASTER! Join the Easter Bunny and rush on in, we're open every day over the break from 9.30am until 4.30pm.
We have everything you can think of for the kids, including hunts, games, and a Mosquito Mission simulator.
We also have awesome coffee and food from our Contact Cafe for when you need a break.
If you want a more in-depth tour, our guides can take you for a look around, including a peek inside our workshops and our reserve collection, for just $5.
Warm, dry and rain-free inside, come and do some museuming* with us!
*Museuming is a made-up word for learning all about the history of New Zealand military aviation at our pl#easterweekende#christchurchnzr#freethingstodostodo ... See MoreSee Less
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Does this hurt the bunny?
That Hare is a fast runner.
Just spotted the rabbit in the photo. Happy Easter to you all.
273 metres 👌
That's an amazing photo Happy Easter everyone
Oma Rapeti on the runway!! 🐇💨 so cute!! 🥰
Don't forget your Horror Box !!!!!!
Run rabbit run run run. Happy Easter to all
There’s a hare running for his life
Run rabbit run
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YOU CAN'T PARK YOUR BLERIOT THERE MATE! Our workshop team has angle parked a Bleriot in our atrium, but just for the moment.
The Bleriot, a replica of of Britannia, New Zealand’s first ‘military’ aircraft, has been delicately removed ahead of some routine maintenance on our atrium roof.
Britannia will get a clean before going back on display, so visitors used to looking up at it can get a closer view from the ground.
Britannia was a larger and more powerful version of the Bleriot XI, the aircraft in which inventor-turned-aviator Louis Bleriot had famously become the first person to fly across the English Channel, in July 1909.
The XI-2 was presented to the New Zealand Government in 1913 by a group of English businessmen known as the Imperial Air Fleet Committee. After an embarrassing start – it arrived in New Zealand without its propeller – Britannia’s first demonstration flights took place above the Auckland Showgrounds in January 1914. It was flown by official Government Pilot, Joe Hammond, one of the few New Zealanders who held a pilot’s licence at the time.
#bleriot ... See MoreSee Less
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Who built the one you have???
Just viewed the Bleriot XI at Shuttleworth in the UK, the world’s oldest flying aircraft. Now just have to revisit when they actually fly it! Hopefully the weather will be fine at the May air show
Dave told me that he parked the aircraft on small reserve on his street, in Dunedin, and a newspaper reporter asked him how it came to be there. He told her he’d been flying, when the engine fell out, so he had to land there. She believed him, and it was published as he said, but was later corrected. He was a great guy.
Fabulous
Bring back the Vampire to the atrium. Please.
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GRID DAY! We are delighted to let you know that Dr Adam Claasen, author of 'Grid: The life and times of one of New Zealand’s greatest military heroes' will be speaking at 10am on Tuesday 13 May in the Theatre at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.
Adam’s biography of Air Commodore Keith ‘Grid’ Caldwell CBE, MC, DFC & bar, Croix de guerre, was published last year and is an impressive piece of scholarship.
Grid tells the story of Caldwell’s remarkable exploits during the First World War. Flying single-seat fighters against the best of the German air force, including the Red Baron’s Flying Circus and airmen such as Werner Voss, Caldwell accumulated 26 victories in aerial combat.
Over his illustrious career he flew with numerous ‘stars’ of the British air service, including Albert Ball, William ‘Billy’ Bishop and Edward ‘Mick’ Mannock. In the last year of the war, aged only 22, he was given command of the new 74 Squadron. Under his leadership 74 ‘Tiger’ Squadron become one of the war’s most feared and revered units.
Grid details Caldwell’s journey from early flight training in Auckland to his death-defying sorties over enemy lines on the Western Front. It also details his pivotal role in sustaining military aviation in interwar New Zealand, and his role in reinvigorating interest in the airmen of the First World War during the 1960s and 1970s.
This is a talk not to be missed!
Grid is available at airforcemuseum.co.nz/shop/grid/
#masseyuniversitypress ... See MoreSee Less
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Will the talk be streamed or recorded?
Such a fabulous speaker!