Taupo Museum and Art Gallery — Attraction in North Island

Definitely make time to see this, as it is very well done. The labelling is excellent and of international standard. Someone described the museum as quaint. Maybe quaint as small in size but that is a plus, as you can drown in content at some museums and I thought it was all highly professional.

Also a great place to go on a rainy day. Good parking outside. $5 adult entry. $3 for Seniors and free to locals. A very manageable size but we still managed to spend two hours there.

There is a waka, well displayed Maori items, a comprehensive early forestry display, a miniature diorama of a logging operation which was amazing, a Moa skeleton, local rocks you can touch, an early caravan and a diary about trips, a Maori meeting house, items the early settlers would have used and several audio visual displays.

The most fascinating visual display to me was one by the National film unit on early tourism in the area.

In an adjacent room is a display of the earliest aerial photographs by White's Aviation. All are hand coloured and there is an audio visual describing the people who did this. This display may be temporary.

Look for the red roof at the back of the park near the Library. Not far from the i-site where the Visitor Information...

Lovely little gallery and museum, the gallery space had second hand art on display which was alright. Would have loved to see something more interactive or bigger more curated works personally, but i think it's a bit hard getting that type of exhibit outside of the big cities. The main museum space is a little bit dated but offers lots of information and interactive parts, most interesting being the area dedicated to the geology of the taupo region. The outer wing containing the waka is a beautiful, meditive space that showcases maori heritage in the region in a tasteful and temperature controlled environment (may be a bit chilly for those prone to cold) overall a cute museum and gallery close to the town and the lake. Reasonably priced and...

Staff was absolutely lovely, myself and my wife visited. It was nice however it was not amazing, our experience was plesant however its an extremely small museum, it would take 20nins tops to look around slowly. Had to pay an entry fee not much at all I think it was $10 for us both, we didn't mind because it was cheap however we have been to much more Nicer, more interesting and bigger museums like the Auckland or Christchurch museum and they are free. They have a courtyard an outside area apart of the museum which we were excited to see however it was once again very small, beautiful piece but it was only one small Maori...