Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Known simply as Te Papa, the museum blends art, history, natural science, and Māori and Pacific culture, including a full wharenui (meeting house) and a colossal squid specimen, and is free to enter.

Planning your visit

Te Papa is New Zealand's national museum and it is free, which for a country where most attractions are expensive is remarkable. Six floors on the Wellington waterfront cover art, history, natural sciences, and Māori and Pacific culture, and the museum's bicultural foundation — it operates under Treaty of Waitangi principles with Māori governance over Māori collections — shapes everything.

Te Marae, a contemporary wharenui carved and woven for the museum, is the centrepiece, and it functions as a working marae rather than a display, hosting formal welcomes.

The colossal squid is the other famous holding: the only intact specimen of the largest invertebrate on earth, caught in Antarctic waters in 2007 and preserved.

Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War, developed with Weta Workshop, presents the campaign through eight enormous hyper-realistic figures of real New Zealanders, and is among the most affecting war exhibitions anywhere.

Allow at least half a day.

Bookable options include general admission and introductory guided tours, which help navigate a building this large. Current availability is shown below.