Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Te Papa Tongarewa
The free national museum has six floors of galleries that cover Māori culture, earthquakes and volcanoes, giant squid, and the Gallipoli campaign. It is the best place to start understanding New Zealand.
Te Papa Tongarewa, which means “place of treasures” in Māori, opened on the waterfront in 1998. It is New Zealand's national museum and art gallery. Spread over six floors and 36,000 square meters, it brings together natural history, Māori and Pacific cultures, history, and art. Admission is usually free. It is widely regarded as a pioneer of interactive museum display.
Must-see areas include the Māori galleries on the fourth floor. They feature the finely carved meeting house Te Hau ki Tūranga (1842), a modern marae gathering space, canoes, and pounamu (greenstone) treasures, along with a giant replica of the Treaty of Waitangi. On the second floor, the “Te Taiao” Nature gallery shows New Zealand's earthquakes, where you can step into a simulated earthquake house, as well as its volcanoes and unique wildlife. Highlights include the world's only complete preserved giant squid specimen (4.2 meters, caught in Antarctic waters in 2007), moa, and kiwi. The special exhibition “Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War,” made by Weta Workshop, features soldier sculptures at 2.4 times life size, detailed down to the pores and tears. It tells the story of New Zealand's casualties in Turkey in 1915. It is the most visited exhibition and has been extended several times. The fifth and sixth floors hold New Zealand art, including works by McCahon and Goldie, along with temporary exhibitions. The top terrace offers views over the harbor.
The museum has Te Papa Café and a shop selling Māori-designed items and local handicrafts. Admission to the museum is free. Special exhibitions cost about NZ$20–30. English-language guided tours run daily (about NZ$20), and a Chinese-language guide booklet is available.
Getting there: Te Papa is on Cable Street on the waterfront, a 10-minute walk from the city center. Several bus routes stop at the door.
Tips: Seeing the whole museum takes more than 3 hours, so start with the Māori galleries and Gallipoli. Store large luggage at the cloakroom. Arriving at 10 a.m. on weekends, when the doors open, means fewer crowds. The earthquake house is not suitable for people with heart conditions or young children.
Opening hours
10:00–18:00 (closed Christmas Day)
Nearby sights
- Harbourside Market
- Embassy Theatre
- Wellington Waterfront & Oriental Bay
- Cuba Street
- City Gallery Wellington
- Wellington Museum
- Pukeahu National War Memorial Park
- The Beehive & Parliament Buildings