A Don’t Miss Experience in Auckland - We are not normally museum people, but we were so fascinated by all the exhibits of the Mauri and many Polynesian peoples, natural history displays and New Zealand’s part in several world wars that we spent four hours here. I highly recommend attending the Mauri cultural presentation held twice a day. It gave insight into their history and traditions and also was very moving.

Great museum, pass up Maori performance here - Excellent museum. However, the Maori performance (we booked directly) was strange in the openly unfriendly way the performers treated audience members as soon as seated: no friendly welcome just warnings if you take a photo or applaud or (quoting) are there to “appropriate” they will chase you out. We were sorry we paid extra to be in the audience. Find a performance elsewhere - BUT don’t bypass the rest of the museum.,

Worth the price - This is a museum that necessitates a few hours of your time due to its remarkable wealth and variety. It provides an enlightening and captivating insight into Maori culture.

Just do it! - Wonderful, world-class experience! Compelling displays and intriguing stories. Do not forgo visiting while in Auckland.

Very interesting and exhibits were well done! - There was an animal award winning photography exhibit while we were there and we really enjoyed it. We paid for a tour guide and were the only ones on the tour. Our guide is a volunteer. She was very good! We learned a lot about New Zealand history, animals and the Māori people. We were there about 3 hours and didn’t get through the whole place. Everything we saw was well done!

Great guided tour - Tour guide was very informative, enthusiastic, great advocate for the museum and New Zealand history and culture. Well worth it

Huge museum with something for everyone - I visited here as part of a debark cruise tour. We were allocated into groups of about 12 and given a tour guide before having some time on our own to explore. It would be fair to say that the museum was far too big for us to see anything other than a small portion. It’s a huge and impressive building housing a war memorial on the top floor. It has lots of Māori exhibits as well as dinosaur exhibits and some wildlife stuff. It would have been good to spend more time here. I did see that there was a cafe and that the Hop On bus stops right outside.

This museum is huge. - This museum has so much to see, its almost overwhelming. The Maori exhibits are incredible and mind-blowing. The war memorial is huge and sad, but so important.

You can buy your ticket when you get there - Actually, there is no need to by skip the line. I waited in general line for a few minutes to redeem my voucher. The museum is worth visiting though. Paid Guided tour is offered at 1pm and a cultural performance at 1:45pm. Unfortunately, the times overlap and you can't do both in one day

Provincial and outdated ( 1 hr max) - The place is tired and not nearly as exciting as museums in other major cities around Pacific ( Sydney, Vancouver etc..). The military exhibition and Holocaust room are interesting, but the rest is really underwhelming.