The Auckland War Memorial Museum has come a long way since its humble beginnings in a two-room cottage in Grafton in 1852.
It shifted to its current position in the Auckland Domain in 1929 and today holds the finest collection of Maori and Pacific artefacts in the world.
Built on the edge of a volcano, the museum regularly exhibits internationally-acclaimed contemporary displays, proving once and for all that museums have replaced their traditional persona with an exciting interactive character.
For example, we bet you wouldn't have imagined creeping through this museum at night on the hunt for dinosaurs. Yet you could have, in the family-orientated interactive Dino's After Dark exhibition.
Nor, we imagine, would you have thought you could experience (in total safety) Auckland in full eruption, while learning the pros and cons of living in the only city in the world built on a volcano.
What's fantastic about the Auckland War Memorial Museum is that it has managed to create these interactive exhibitions and learning centres, without compromising the integrity of its fixed displays.
Unique flora and fauna, our colonial development and war history, and more than 2000 Maori treasures are all right here in the Auckland War Memorial Museum.