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
GREBE ALERT! Exciting news for fans of the Gloster Grebe.
We’re delighted to present a FREE talk at our museum from the team behind the project to build a reproduction of Gloster Grebe NZ501 next month.
On Saturday 11 April at 10am project backers Stephen Carruthers, Mike Marra and Anthony Galbraith will outline plans to recreate what is one of the most significant aircraft in New Zealand’s military aviation history.
Back in 1926 Sir Henry Wigram contributed £2500 to encourage the New Zealand Government to take aviation seriously. That donation resulted in the purchase of three Grebes for the defence of New Zealand.
NZ501 was the first to arrive at Wigram in February 1928, and it was the most advanced aircraft in the land back then.
One Grebe was destroyed in an accident in 1932, and the last two Grebes were retired in 1938, becoming instructional airframes. They were broken up in 1943.
This talk is FREE and on in our Theatre. No need to book.
Short Talk: The return of Gloster Grebe NZ501
Saturday 11 April 10am
#rnzaf #glostergrebe #glosteraircraft ... See MoreSee Less
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CRASH OVER CHRISTCHURCH: One hundred years ago today, on 17 March 1926, Captain Frederick James 'Jim' Horrell and his passenger Lewis Martin Reid were killed when their Bristol Fighter crashed a short distance from an orphanage in Papanui, Christchurch.
Jim Horrell was a 34-year-old veteran of the Gallipoli campaign, who went on to become a Royal Flying Corps pilot.
Lewis Reid was a 22-year-old mess waiter, who was on the flight for a ride.
In a new blog, our Research Curator Simon Moody traces the story of the crash, and its significance as the first accident on home soil for our fledgling air force.
📰 Read all about it here: airforcemuseum.co.nz/blog/first-to-fall-100-years-after-the-loss-of-captain-jim-horrell/ ... See MoreSee Less
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Do you have any thoughts on where I might find information about the men in the group photo? I'm wondering if the H Smith is Herbert Henry Smith, known as Bert, born 1904, died 1986. Bert was my great grandfather's brother.
MAREE’S BACK: Roll the clock back to May 1972, and young Maree Ellis had arrived at Wigram ready to start her new life in the RNZAF.
Maree grew up in Ashburton and decided to join the air force while she was a teenager. She needed to be 17 years and six months old to join up, so the day she was eligible she signed on the dotted line.
“I knew mum and dad wouldn’t be keen for me to move from home to Christchurch and find a job, but that they would be fine if I was joining the air force. So, it was my ticket out of a small town!’’
She trained as a librarian (which later became the publications specialist trade) and served for five years, with postings including Wigram, Ohakea, Wellington, and Whenuapai.
“I loved my time in the RNZAF, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. For me it was all about the comradeship – I’m still in touch with most of my recruit course.’’
Maree married RNZAF air electronics operator Bill Pickering, and they had two children. After Bill left the air force he worked as a pilot for Air Pacific, and they raised the family in Fiji.
While they were there Maree got a job with the United Nations and ended up working as a human resources manager, looking after the UN team working on 10 islands in the Pacific.
These days Maree is semi-retired and lives in Brisbane. She dropped in to check in on Wigram on her way to the airport to return to Australia.
Her favourite place in the RNZAF was the barrack block at Worser Bay in Wellington, and she was photographed with the noisy Harvard, which used to keep her up at night at Wigram.
Nice to see you Maree and welcome home!
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The trade was originally called Publications Specialist (when I joined in 1986) and later became ‘Librarian’.