The National Army Museum, Waiouru

Honour the sacrifices, learn the campaigns, be inspired by the stories of courage, loyalty and comradeship.
Make a visit to New Zealand's most comprehensive Army Museum for access to a unique collection of military exhibits, memorabilia and public research material. A place where families can seek out and relate to their military connections. - http://www.armymuseum.co.nz/

On our way down to Wellington last weekend our 19month old decided at the start of the Desert Road that he was not keen to stay in the car any more, and spent the entire Desert Road telling us all about that.

We made it to the Army Museum and thought, "what the heck, always wanted to go here anyway" and so got out and made our way inside. We stopped off at a couple of tanks for D to have a climb and a play, he had a GREAT TIME.

To be honest, I wasn't really expecting a whole lot. It doesn't look like a huge building from the outside and when we got inside and found it was $15 per adult, or $30 for a family, I wasn't sure that it would be worth it.

I was so wrong. We enjoyed this much more than we did Te Papa (that's another blog post though!), it was well worth the money and detailed the history of NZ at war, both within NZ and overseas. We managed to spend almost 2 hours there, just perusing the different sections and taking lots of photos. Even our little man enjoyed himself, there was lots to look at and the staff we encountered were so friendly and helpful.

A favourite of mine and hubby's would have to be one of their temporary exhibits (until June) is the NZSAS - In the pursuit of excellence exhibit. All about the NZ Special/Elite Forces.

The little man's favourite exhibit I would think was the Kids Zone, where there is even a bunker to crawl through, a video playing, educational resources and a whole lot of army dressup clothes and plastic guns. Awesome!
I would definitely recommend stopping in next time you are passing through Waiouru, well worth the visit.