What's on at Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Latest from the museum
Birthday Parties
Mission: Best birthday ever
Zip up a flight suit, grab your dog tags, and dive into a fully hosted birthday “mission”. From air & sea adventures for preschoolers to rescue and cadet challenges for older children. Our Programmes team runs the activities, the children get awesome photo moments (and party bags), and you can add catering through our café.
Book a birthday party
Latest Exhibition
Victory!
It is 80 years since the end of the Second World War.
Our Victory exhibition, upstairs in the atrium, marks this significant milestone in world history, and the story of the RNZAF.
Victory includes images and memories of Victory in Europe (VE) Day and Victory over Japan (VJ) Day which have been sourced from photographs, letters, postcards and personal histories in our collection.
Victory includes insights into how Kiwis celebrated, and how they felt.
Many found it difficult to rejoice after so much loss and suffering.
You’re welcome to come along and learn all about the end of World War Two with us.
Exhibition
The Mighty Hercules
The Mighty Hercules exhibition is on in the Cochrane Gallery upstairs in our atrium. Come and visit and learn all about this extraordinary aircraft.
Learn More
Update
Overseas visitor charge
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.
The charge is required to cover rising costs and to contribute to our new $20 million extension to house the newest members of our collection – our historic Hercules and Orion aircraft.
Learn More
Our Aircraft
Explore AircraftMore to explore
YOU CAN'T PARK THERE MATE! Back in 1971, Bell 47G Sioux NZ3711 got a bit too close with its rotor blade when it parked beside a shed at Waiouru.
The pilot and passenger were unharmed, the Sioux and the shed were not so lucky. The Sioux, which was just one year old at the time, was judged to be a write-off after the flames were dous#youcantparktheremateemate ... See MoreSee Less
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The day the shed got a name as Jamieson Shed.
Pilot K F Byrne ????
COOPED UP: Imagine you’re about 10 years old in the early 1980s and you’re looking for somewhere to play with your mates after school in a rural part of North Otago.
If you’re Richard Carter you sneak down the road to your neighbour’s place at Totara, where there’s a spare Lockheed Hudson sitting in a field.
Richard has been reunited with that Hudson after 43 years – and it is fair to say it is looking a bit better than the last time he saw it.
Our Hudson, NZ2013, was manufactured by Lockheed in California in 1941 and served in the Pacific during World War Two.
By 1948 it was surplus to requirements and somehow or other ended up working as a chicken coop at Totara, south of Oamaru.
That’s where Richard and his mates found it and climbed aboard.
“To us it was a just a big plane – we could climb in and pull on the levers and play around. We didn’t realise its significance until later.’’
The Hudson was a chicken coop and a shed until it was purchased by us, with fundraising assistance from No. 26 Oamaru Squadron Air Training Corps in 1985.
After nine years of painstaking restoration work, NZ2013 went in display in 1996 wearing its No. 4 Squadron colour scheme from its service in Fiji in 1943.
The pictures show its recovery and progress over the years.
Thanks for visiting Richard – your playground is safe with us!
#lockheedhudson ... See MoreSee Less
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I had a similar experience in the 1980s, when I was 11yrs old i started as a volunteer at MOTAT and spent quite a bit of time hanging out at the aviation park around their Hudson 2031, I later gained my pilots license and still dream of flying a Hudson one day which is highly unlikely but anyway.
remember seeing it as a kid when we moved to DN-DN early 60s
Remember stopping to visit very well . Every trip south she was a highlight
26 Squadron ATC represent! 😊
As a kid it was always the highlight of a trip down highway 1 to spot the Hudson out the window as we passed, I always wanted to play in that chicken coop... and the Vampire that was at Cave! So great to see them both restored!
It was always a highlight for us as kids to spy this plane/chicken coop on our trips to Christchurch. I was so pleased to see that it survived the poop and had been restored.
A chicken coop? Weird! 🐔
One photo shows the plane on the west side of main road and the truck is coming out from the east side was it moved from one side to the other??
How'd you sort the wings and all other missing stuff?
Just curious. Where were all the Hudson parts (including wings, etc.) acquired?
Always tried to be the first to spot it when we drove South of Oamaru
My cousin Flt Lt Max McCormick flew Hudsons from Henderson Field. He was credited with the 1st air to air kill in the Pacific and MD when he shot down a Japanese Kawasaki reconnaisance aircraft.
Is it airworthy? Has anyone actually flown the coop?
So where is it now?
Love background stories.
Good to see well done to all involved.
Wonderful restoration. I'm another who scrambled around inside that chicken coop. Nearby, at the time, was a Mosquito fuselage that was also full of chicken left-overs. It is now being restored at Ferrymead. A Mosquito engine – Rolls Royce Merlin – was also on the farm, under a lean-to. It is now displayed in the car museum in the Wool Store building, Oamaru.
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DETECTIVE OSCAR: Meet super sleuth Oscar, the latest winner in our hunt competition.
Oscar took home a Cluedo Junior prize pack for turning detective and sucessfully solving our Detective Fanshaw hunt.
Oscar and his family are regulars to the museum and love doing the hunt because there are different options for all the siblings.
His favourite aircraft is the mighty Skyhawk – a crowd favourite!
if you want to turn detective - just like oscar - get along to our place and get detecting!
#hunt #airforcecmuseumofnewzealand #cluedo #whodunnit ... See MoreSee Less
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