What's on at Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Latest from the museum
Support
Home For Heroes
Join us in building a forever home for New Zealand’s C-130 Hercules and P-3 Orion – icons of service.
For more than half a century, these legendary aircraft carried our nation’s courage across the world – in peace, crisis, and discovery. Now, they need a home worthy of their legacy, where their stories of service, innovation and humanity will continue to inspire.
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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
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.
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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.
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Our Aircraft
Explore AircraftMore to explore
📢🚨MYSTERY SOLVED 📢🚨: Come on down Andrew McGill, winner of our latest mystery object competition.
The mystery object is the anti-collision beacon off the tail fin of our Lockheed C-130H Hercules.
The photo was cunningly taken before the tail was craned into position and put on display. The beacon was technically upside down in the photo to put you off the scent. Unless the Hercules was in a barrel roll at the time, which it wasn't.
Anyhoo - Andrew McGill wins an Air Force Museum of New Zealand roundel mug.
Please email communications@airforcemuseum.co.nz Andrew and we will fire up the Bristol Freighter and fly the mug out to your home address.
We're working on an even more fiendishly difficult mystery for nex#MysteryObjectte#wedonthaveacluet#impossiblepuzzleiblepuzzle ... See MoreSee Less
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🚨📢 TALL TAILS HAS LANDED! Our new Tall Tails exhibition opens at 9.30am today, so please come along to our place to be wowed by the scale of our latest exhibits, and the cheerleaders for our Home for Heroes fundraising campaign.
The tails belonging to two national heroes – our Lockheed C-130 Hercules and P-3K2 Orion aircraft - were officially launched as a new exhibition last night.
The aircraft are too large to fit in our storage hangars with their tails on. So we turned their tails into an exhibition until we can raise the money needed to build them a new home large enough to fit the Hercules and Orion - tails and all.
As you can see from the pictures, the Hercules and Orion tails are so huge they barely fit in our largest display area – so we’re going to need a bigger museum space!
Getting these tails on display has been a huge effort involving a whole lot of our museum team and supporters.
We'd like to say a huge thank you to kaumatua Ruawhitu Pokaia for the karakia to get last night off to a perfect start.
Thanks to our board Chair Kevin Short, board members, No. 5 and No. 40 Squadron aviators past and present, local MPs, councillors, friends and supporters who came along to the launch last night.
The Lockheed tails needed some specialist help to prepare them the display, and we’d like to thank Dave and Matt Harward of Harward and Son for the precision manufacturing work, mechanical engineering consultant Motovated for the design work and sign off, and Titan Cranes for the delicate lift into place.
Finally, thanks to our patient visitors for putting up with a disrupted week as we put Tall Tails together.
Tall Tails is free for New Zealanders and is on every day at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand from 9.30am until 4.30pm.
If you’d like to support our Tall Tails campaign, go to
airforcemuseum.co.nz/donate/
#nzdf #rnzaf #homeforhereoes #talltails #lockheed ... See MoreSee Less
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Had a look today and so happy I went. :)
Thank you Wigram team for the opportunity to be part of this significant journey toward your new forever home build. www.harwardandson.com
I can’t wait to see this!!
youtube.com/shorts/V9M5gxNplK4
JOIN US IN BUILDING A HOME FOR HEROES! Help support our campaign to build a home for our P-3K2 Orion and C-130H Hercules here: airforcemuseum.co.nz/donate/ ... See MoreSee Less
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Are you going to have another open day to see the Hercules. ?
That plane deployed & brought us home safely from all over the planet everytime.
Can you get the project underway with your available funds Brett, so that you can keep ahead of escalating costs. Get the building shell up and complete in funding stages from there?
I'd much rather the council have put money toward this than the cathedral
Brilliant video team. Well done.
Be good to see the PBY displayed by the P3
Good luck Air Force Museum of New Zealand. Look forward to seeing the ribbon cut in due course!
Great work Brett Marshall!
Kathryn McGinlay Ben McGinlay
Matt Johnson
What was .
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