The Auckland War Memorial Museum (Tāmaki Paenga Hira) is the city's most important museum — a Greek Revival temple atop a volcanic cone in the Auckland Domain that combines three collections: New Zealand's finest Māori and Pacific taonga (treasures), a natural history collection, and a WWI and WWII memorial that is New Zealand's most visited. The building was completed in 1929 and extended with a copper-dome atrium in 2007.
The Māori Court displays a fully carved meeting house (Hotunui, built 1878), a 25-metre war canoe (Te Toki-a-Tāpiri, the last great Māori war waka), and the Origins gallery covering 1,000 years of Polynesian navigation. The Pacific collection — the finest outside the islands themselves — includes Cook Islands ceremonial costume, Fijian war clubs, and the Tongan tapa cloth collections that anchor the museum's claim to being the keeper of Polynesian cultural memory. The 45-minute daily Māori cultural performance (haka, waiata, poi) in the Māori Court is one of the best in the city.
Verified Facts
The museum was completed in 1929
Hotunui carved meeting house was built in 1878
Te Toki-a-Tāpiri is 25 metres long
The museum sits atop a volcanic cone in the Auckland Domain
Get walking directions
Parnell, Auckland Domain
