We had a rainy afternoon to fill before our flight and chose to visit the Maritime Museum. We got much more than we expected seeing hundreds of boats and hearing their stories. We also were struck by the story of Peter Blake and the emigration stories.

It was quite interesting to learn about the history of Māori navigation as well the journeys that took to the discovery of the islands. My favorite part was the Immigration section, quite emotional and life changing. We didn’t care at all about the yachting/speed boat section. We also filled in a questionnaire when we exited… quite strange and irrelevant questions and extremely long process, took around 10 minutes

We were curious about the museum so we checked it out. Tourists pay for admission but, for a very reasonable price, you can add a one hour ride on a sailing ship. At the time of this writing, it was $30usd to do both! Great value! The museum has three areas; Sailing history for early Maori people, sailing and settlement for Europeans, and then a world cup history. All of them were very well done and really interesting. Then we got on an older ship with sails a took a trip around the bay. The volunteers were wonderful and fun to talk with. We got to help raise the sails and we moved fast. We had so much fun! We highly recommend taking time to check it out!

We spent over 3 hours at this fascinating presentation of Auckland & New Zealand’s maritime history on a rainy day. Maori & settlers experiences are covered, along with a contemporary gallery on the Americas cup. Harbour tours are offered on vintage boats, for an additional charge, but not appropriate for us in view of the weather.

Great location along the waterfront promenade. Was pleasantly surprised by the size of the museum and the expanse of displays. Entry is free if you’re an Auckland resident. Otherwise, it was $24 NZ for adult entry. Don’t recall the family or senior rates as I went in as a single.

We stopped at this museum during our recent stay in Auckland. We enjoyed the museum, especially the sections related to the early history of the Maori and their boast and relationship to the sea. The section on immigration to New Zealand was also fascinating. There was a large display covering yachting and yacht racing as well. Everything was well-displayed and nicely labelled. I would recommend adding this to your itinerary in Auckland if you can.

We had not planned to go to this museum, but were walking in the area and decided to check it out. This is a really well-done museum covering a variety of topics relating to the sea. One of our favorites was the section on immigrants from the UK and the immense hardships they survived for a better life. Another favorite was about the America's Cup and the film about Sir Peter Blake. Makes you appreciate the work involved in yacht racing.

We visited here during our stay in Auckland. So much to see in the museum and the harbour cruise on the ted Ashby was also excellent. Great crew with lots of information delivered in an amusing manner. Thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

Starts off a bit underwhelming but gets better as you go. The rocking room of an early cabin is a neat idea. There are lots of short videos and interactive screens to keep most of us entertained and educated, but two at least are too long. One has a running time of 48 mins and another 80 mins. I have no doubt that Peter Blake was a remarkable Kiwi, but how many visitors will sit through an 80 minute tribute? All in all though I spent 2 hours there and I don’t really like sailing!

Went in early March 2024 and was pretty impressed with the museum. A good selection of stands to look at going back the early days right up to the current time. You will need a good few hours here to see it all.