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
NEVER CLOSER! Never before in history have Oxford and Hastings been closer!
In this case it is a Morris Oxford and a Handley Page Hastings - two of the most stylish machines of the 20th century.
On the map Hastings and Oxford are roughly 800km apart in different islands (or 160 km apart if you're talking about the less well known Hastings in East Sussex and the obscure university town of Oxford in Oxfordshire) but on this day in October 1963 they look perilously close!
The Morris Oxford and the Handley Page Hastings were snapped at the end of the runway at Rangitaiki Airfield.
The RNZAF operated four Handley Page Hastings transport aircraft from 1952 until 1965.
This is one of the 50,000 great pictures in our collecti#handleypagehastingst#morrisoxfordxford ... See MoreSee Less
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VIVA ASHVEGAS!!! Race on in at 10am tomorrow (Saturday 7 March) for a Short Talk on Ashburton Aerodrome!
Volunteer guide Glenn Vallender will trace the history of aviation in the captial of mid-Canterbury, which started out in 1908 with ballooning exhibitions on the local A & P showgrounds, and then became the first stop on aviation pioneer Captain Euan Dickson’s southern tour in 1920.
During World War Two Ashburton was used as an RNZAF elementary flight school and it has grown into a 99-hectare aerodrome with four runways, private hangars and its own dedicated aviation museum.
Glenn will describe how the aerodrome’s determined backers had a conviction in the inevitable future of aviation for civil and military use, which resulted in it becoming the first council-owned aerodrome in the South Island.
This FREE event is the latest in our Short Talk series and will be on in our Theatre, beginning at 10am on Saturday 7 March.
Images: Taken from the Frances Cameron Eichbaum personal album collection from the No. 3 Squadron, Territorial Air Force camp at Ashburton Airfield in 1953.
#shorttalk #ashburton ... See MoreSee Less
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WE HAVE A WINNER: Come on down Alan Taylor and take a bow - you've triumphed in our latest guess the cockpit competition.
Alan was correct in identifying our tricky mystery office as an Airspeed Oxford.
He wins an incredibly stylish Air Force Museum of New Zealand roundel coffee mug. They're round - with roundels!
Pleae email communications@airforcemuseum.co.nz and we will fire up the Bristol Freighter and fly the prize out to you.
Thanks to everyone else who entered - it wasn't easy!
The RNZAF operated 299 Oxfords in all between 1938-1954 – more than nearly any other aircraft type. They were made of plywood and fabric and were used for various aspects of advanced air crew training, as well as general reconnaissance, communications and aerial survey work.
They were more than a little accident prone - with 72 lost in accidents and mishaps.
We've got an Oxford in our collection - feel free to come and have a look!
We'll have another dastardly difficult #mysterycockpitt#guessthecockpitycockpit #guessthecockpit ... See MoreSee Less
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