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
Great turnout today for the monthly coffee bar gathering for all veterans and current serving personnel at the museum today.
This takes place on the last Friday of every month - so come along!!
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What time on the Fridays please?
LST Friday of the month anytime after 0930
A reminder that the MT are going to invade very soon.
SUPERCARS VISIT: When Supercars rolled into town last month Brad Jones Racing driver Andre Heimgartner and broadcaster Richard Craill took the time to explore our museum and the history of Wigram as a motorsport track.
With Christchurch's Anna Collins and her 1974 Lola just down the road, they also took the chance to light up the taxiways - just a little bit - for old time's sake.
Here's some broadcast footage of their day at Wigram for your enjoyment.
It was a great to see those cars scoot across our historic pavement!
Wigram Airfield – home of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand – has a long and colourful history as a motor circuit which started back in 1949 when an estimated 30,000 spectators crowded in to watch the first race.
The Wigram event soon evolved into a huge event on the motorsport calendar. In 1951 the Lady Wigram Trophy was presented to the winner of the premier event and it became one of the most sought after trophies in motorsport.
Jackie Stewart, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren all raced at Wigram over the years.
Anna's Lola T332 raced here in the 1970s, and the 600 horsepower Chev V8 was singing a happy tune again.
Christchurch is a second home for Andre. He has completed more than 5000 laps at Ruapuna – but it was his first time at Wigram Airfield.
We’d like to thank Alistair Hey, Mark Collins, and Anna for bringing the Lola back home. And Graeme Trevor and David Abbott for all the assistance.
And thanks to Supercars for the footage.
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URGENT CLARIFICATION: It has come to our attention there may be widespread confusion out there between the frigate bird and the Frigate ship, which we’re keen to clear up even though it is technically outside of our confusional jurisdiction.
This is unsurprising of course. As well as sharing a name, the frigate bird and the ship are both beautifully-designed sea goers which packed a mean punch, and they do look remarkably similar, as our pictures show.
So we’ve prepared a handy three-step guide to help you tell them apart.
Please note, for the purposes of today’s clarification we are using the Frigate HMNZS Otago for comparison purposes, because, as you all know, Frigate ships date back to the 17th century and have many variations.
We’ll start today in the armament department.
Frigate birds come armed with a wicked looking hooked bill, which is their chief weapon for hunting.
This single weapon system helped distinguished the bird from Frigate ships, which, in the case of the Otago, came armed with four main offensive systems - Mk 6 twin 4.5-inch guns, a single Mk 9 L60 40 mm Bofors gun, 12 21-inch torpedo tubes and two Limbo anti-submarine.
The second main difference came in fuelling.
Frigate birds are sustained on a diet consisting of mostly small fish and the odd squid and are fuelled via a top hatch.
Navy frigates only ran on naval diesel fuel oil and needed a lot of it.
Finally, and you’ll kick yourself once it is pointed out, the biggest tell of all is in their plumage.
Male frigate birds were adorned with a purple sheen as well as a beautiful scarlet throat patch which could be inflated in the breeding season to attract mates.
By comparison naval Frigate plumage was purposely dull.
HMNZS Otago was painted in the standard North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ‘haze gray’ – a dull colour but good for not drawing attention to the ship, especially outside of the breeding season.
So, there you have it, another clarification you thought you'd never need. Never confuse your aerial and naval frigates again.
You’re welcome.
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My father A D Hunter was the gunnery officer on the Frigate HMS Rutherford. He served on Rutherford at the time of the D day landings and was on her in the channel on D day +1. A fast and manoeuvrable vessel by all accounts.
... and here's another Frigate Bird just to add to the confusion!
This is an excellent post. I served in the RNZN, and can't tell you the number of times sailors thought our navy was huge due to the flocks of frigates seen flying around.
Brand new phrase - "Confusional jurisdiction". I'm going to steal that. Or borrow it a bit.
I often get Frigates confused with Boobies. That would have made for a different post, I guess 🤔
Easy to seen why you could get confused, both are very sleek and have a longish tail section. Plus the head could be mistaken for the tower in poor conditions...
In a way, a frigate bird eats 10 to 20% of its weight diary, so they eat more :-)
Naval frigates have been known to help their avian counterparts protect their food sources by policing squid boats 😁
...outside of the ship breeding season... Is that why a NZ Navy vessel ended up on a reef recently?
I had no idea a frigate was a ship
Love it. Pse keep up with this fascinating work.
One is a really amazing seagoing avian. The other is the Kiwi Goat Boat. 😘❤️🌞😀
*confusional jurisdiction 🤣 (and who knew confusional was actually a word?... providing vocabulary development as well 👌)
Daryl Bowe this is the page with the important descriptions I told you about
Are you sure that's not a shag?
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