Ashburton Aviation Museum — Attraction in Canterbury

For years, Ashburton has been a place that my wife and I have either passed through on the way to somewhere else, or stopped for coffee/second breakfast/dinner/pit stop, not necessarily in that order.

I have known for a long time about the gem at Ashburton’s airfield, which, during World War 2, was a RNZAF training base and I have always wanted to visit, but travelling schedules and the museum’s limited opening hours never seemed to coincide.

So, on a recent trip to Christchurch, I suddenly realised that, this time, our travel schedule would allow a stop-off at the museum during the two hours that it would be open on that particular day. My wife said go for it and she would sit in the car with her book. I said she better have another book on standby because I was going to be inside for the full two hours.

And I was. On the scale of other aviation museums, Ashburton is a small operation, but they have an impressively varied collection and I used every minute of the allotted...

We loved going there. It was not busy so we had all the time in the world and even got a guide from one of the volunteers.

Amazing planes they have at a great location. We would to be there when an event or airshow is one.

Seeing the old and new planes from this tiny, unmanned, airport would be so cool.

Especially if one was able to view it from the old control tower.

Long story short: we would absolutely recommend this to anybody with some time at hands and an interest in aviation.

Last bit: check the opening times, they are so small that they are not always open.

We will back,...

This museum is packed into 2 small hangers which makes it difficult to view each aircraft individually but then there is the pleasure of walking between them with no restrictions. This will all change when the new hangar is built next year. There is a great mixture of aircraft to view from fast jets to helicopters and gliders as well as a huge range of artefacts. Admission prices are very reasonable and the staff friendly and knowledgeable. Allow about 2 hours for a visit to this well worth it museum. Less with children as there are no specific activities for them. There is no...