Historic Sites in New Zealand

The Bay of Islands, three and a half hours north of Auckland, is where Māori and Europeans first lived side by side, and it has more early sites than anywhere else. Base yourself in Paihia.

The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are a 30-minute walk or a short drive north of Paihia. The white Treaty House, built in 1833 for the British Resident James Busby, stands on the lawn where the Treaty was signed. Beside it, Te Whare Rūnanga is a carved meeting house opened in 1940 with carvings from iwi across the country, and on the shore lies Ngātokimatawhaorua, a 35 m war canoe built for the centenary and still paddled on Waitangi Day. Two museums tell the story: the Museum of Waitangi on the Treaty and Te Rau Aroha on Māori service in the armed forces. Your ticket includes a guided tour and a cultural performance and is valid for two days; international visitors pay a higher price than New Zealanders. Allow at least half a day.

Auckland sits on about 50 small volcanoes, and Māori turned many of them into fortified pā, carving terraces, food-storage pits and defensive ditches that you can still see. The two best are Maungakiekie, or One Tree Hill, in Cornwall Park, with its obelisk and huge terraced slopes, and Maungawhau, or Mount Eden, the highest cone in the city, with a 50 m-deep crater. Both are free and open daily; vehicles are no longer allowed on the summits, so you walk the last stretch.

The Auckland War Memorial Museum in the Auckland Domain has the best collection of Māori and Pacific treasures in the country, including the carved meeting house Hotunui and the war canoe Te Toki a Tapiri, plus short daily cultural performances. Upstairs are the war memorial halls. Allow two to three hours.

Across the harbour, North Head above Devonport has tunnels and gun emplacements built against a feared Russian attack in the 1880s, 12 minutes from the city by ferry. Rangitoto Island, the youngest volcano in the Hauraki Gulf, has a short climb to the summit and a row of 1920s and 1930s holiday baches at Islington Bay. North of the city, ferries from Sandspit reach Kawau Island and the Mansion House, the 1860s home of Governor Sir George Grey.

The wars fought between the Crown and several iwi from 1845 to 1872 shaped the country, and their sites are low-key earthworks in farmland with information panels rather than visitor centres. At Rangiriri, beside State Highway 1 about an hour south of Auckland, a Māori defensive line held off British troops in November 1863 before its defenders were taken prisoner; the trench line and a cemetery remain. Ōrākau, near Kihikihi south of Te Awamutu, is where Rewi Maniapoto’s force refused to surrender in 1864.

In Tauranga, Gate Pā, where Māori defenders inflicted a heavy defeat on the British in April 1864, is now a small reserve with a memorial. The nearby Elms mission house, from 1847, has its original library. In the middle of the North Island, Te Pōrere Redoubt near Tongariro National Park is the earthwork fort where Te Kooti fought his last major battle in 1869.

Before 1886, tourists came to the Rotorua lakes to see the Pink and White Terraces, silica staircases on the shore of Lake Rotomahana that were called the eighth wonder of the world. On the night of 10 June 1886, Mount Tarawera erupted, destroyed the terraces and buried the village of Te Wairoa, which had been their tourist base. The Buried Village of Te Wairoa, 15 minutes from Rotorua on the road to Lake Tarawera, has excavated houses, a small museum and a bush walk to a waterfall. Allow two hours.

On 3 February 1931 a magnitude 7.8 earthquake destroyed Napier and Hastings and killed 256 people. Napier was rebuilt within a few years in the style of the day, and the result is one of the most complete Art Deco town centres in the world, with Spanish Mission and Stripped Classical buildings mixed in. The Art Deco Centre on Tennyson Street runs guided walks every day, and vintage-car tours leave from the same place. In February the Art Deco Festival fills the streets with 1930s costume and cars. Ōtātara Pā, on the edge of Taradale, is one of the largest pā sites in the country, with walking tracks over its terraces.

In Wellington, free guided tours take you through Parliament, including the 1970s Beehive and the older Parliament House. Opposite, the Old Government Buildings of 1876 are one of the largest wooden buildings in the world. The National Library’s He Tohu gallery displays the original Treaty of Waitangi, the 1835 Declaration of Independence and the 1893 petition that won women the vote, free of charge. Old St Paul’s, an 1866 timber Gothic church, and Pukeahu National War Memorial Park are a short walk away. Te Papa, the national museum, has a working marae and the best introduction to Māori and settler history in one building.

The earthquake of 22 February 2011 killed 185 people and destroyed much of central Christchurch, and seeing how the city has rebuilt is now part of any visit. ChristChurch Cathedral in Cathedral Square is still under restoration, and services are held in the Transitional Cathedral, a building of cardboard tubes designed by Shigeru Ban. The Gothic Revival Arts Centre, the old university, has reopened with shops, cafés and studios. The Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial runs along the Avon River. The Canterbury Museum is closed for a long redevelopment.

Over the Port Hills, Lyttelton is the harbour where the first Canterbury settlers landed in 1850, and its rebuilt Timeball Station overlooks the port. An hour and a half from the city on Banks Peninsula, Akaroa was founded by French settlers in 1840 and keeps French street names and a small museum.

Dunedin, founded by Scottish settlers in 1848 and made rich by the Otago gold rush, has the best Victorian and Edwardian architecture in the country. The Flemish Renaissance-style railway station of 1906 has a mosaic floor and is the departure point for scenic trains. Toitū Otago Settlers Museum is free. On the Otago Peninsula, Larnach Castle, built from 1871 for the banker William Larnach, has gardens and harbour views, and at Taiaroa Head an 1880s disappearing gun sits in its pit near the albatross colony. Olveston, an Edwardian family home with its contents intact, is visited on guided tours. Up the harbour, Port Chalmers has old stone churches and pubs.

Oamaru, 90 minutes north of Dunedin, built its banks, grain stores and warehouses from local white limestone in the 1870s and 1880s. The Victorian Precinct on Harbour and Tyne streets is now full of bookbinders, galleries and Steampunk HQ, and in November the town holds its Victorian Heritage Celebrations. On the way between the two towns, the Moeraki Boulders are natural round concretions on Koekohe Beach, best at low tide.

Gold was found at Gabriel’s Gully near Lawrence in 1861 and on the West Coast soon after, and tens of thousands of miners, including thousands from southern China, poured in. Arrowtown, 20 minutes from Queenstown, is the best-preserved gold town: a main street of 1860s cottages and shops, the Lakes District Museum, and the restored Chinese Settlement of stone huts by the river, free to walk around. Autumn, in April, turns the town gold. A 4WD track up the Arrow River leads to Macetown, a ghost town.

In Central Otago, the Bannockburn Sluicings near Cromwell show the gullies left by hydraulic mining, and St Bathans has a tiny main street and the Blue Lake, a flooded mine pit. The 152 km Otago Central Rail Trail from Clyde to Middlemarch passes many of the old gold towns over four or five days by bike.

On the West Coast, Shantytown Heritage Park, south of Greymouth, is a re-created gold town with a steam train. The Brunner Mine site, where 65 men died in 1896 in the country’s worst mining disaster, and the Denniston Plateau near Westport, with its steep coal incline, show the industry that followed. Hokitika, a gold-rush port, is now the place to buy pounamu (greenstone) carving.

Many historic buildings, including the Kerikeri Mission Station, Pompallier Mission and Old St Paul’s, are run by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, which charges small entry fees and sells an annual membership that covers all of its properties. Pā sites, war sites and most memorials are free and always open, with nothing more than an information board. Te Papa and the Auckland Museum have their own ticketing for international visitors, so check current prices. You need a car for the Northland and Waikato sites; see our getting around guide.

A good route links the North Island sites in a week: Auckland, two days in the Bay of Islands, back through the Waikato to Rotorua, then Napier and Wellington. In the south, Christchurch, Oamaru, Dunedin and Arrowtown fit a road trip from Christchurch to Queenstown; our itineraries give the timings.