Auckland War Memorial Museum

Auckland Museum, also known as Auckland War Memorial Museum, is a prominent institution in New Zealand, located in the Auckland Domain. It houses over 4 million items, including significant Māori and Pacific artefacts, and serves as a war memorial for the Auckland province. The museum offers a range of exhibitions and educational programmes, making it a key destination for understanding New Zealand’s heritage.

Planning your visit

Auckland Museum does three jobs at once, and does the first exceptionally well. Its Māori and Pacific collections are among the most significant anywhere: Te Toki a Tapiri, the last great Māori war canoe, carved from a single totara tree and capable of carrying 100 warriors; Hotunui, a fully carved meeting house from 1878 that visitors enter; and extensive Pacific holdings covering Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands and Melanesia. The second job is natural history — New Zealand's distinctive and much-diminished fauna, including moa skeletons and volcanic material relevant to a city built on 53 volcanic cones. The third is its founding purpose: the building is Auckland province's war memorial, and the upper floors carry the names of the dead from both world wars in halls designed for remembrance rather than display.

That combination makes it the single best orientation to New Zealand for a visitor arriving in Auckland. The neoclassical building sits on a rise in the Auckland Domain with views across the harbour, and the collection runs to over four million items across three floors. Allow at least three hours.

The most popular booking pairs entry with the Māori cultural performance, staged several times daily in the Māori galleries — waiata, poi and haka performed by Māori artists, lasting around 45 minutes, and considerably more meaningful in the galleries than in a purpose-built tourist venue. General admission tickets cover independent visits, with a donation-based entry system for New Zealand residents. Combined sightseeing tours use the museum as one stop on a wider Auckland circuit, which suits visitors with a single day in the city. Current availability is listed below.