Check out number 11 bored is not going to happen
Discover how to keep the kids interested while you relish all that New Zealand has to offer. Families can join prison tours, find places where buttons are pushed and levers sprung to an exploration 1920’s milking shed complete with mooing cows. Plenty of diverse attractions explaining the story of NZ and places of interest along the way for families.
Ever wanted to hop into the cockpit of a fighter jet?
Classic Flyer Museum is the place to be for a chance to test your pilot skills (number 19).
This is a continuation of the original top 12 places to visit with kids, add a dash of heritage and your bucket list gets better and better.
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WAITANGI TREATY GROUNDS – BAY OF ISLANDS, NORTHLAND
Find out about story of modern New Zealand with time spent at Waitangi Treaty Grounds where a magnificent ocean going waka symbolising Polynesian Pacific Ocean navigation skills. Check out Resources and Activities – Waitangi. Check beforehand various exhibits and interactive experiences to get the most out of the day.
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POMPALLIER PRINTING PRESS, RUSSELL – BAY OF ISLANDS, NORTHLAND
Enjoy thinking about the time required to print one sheet of paper at Pompallier Printing press on a workshop tour with every letter individually picked and placed into a printing block. Kids will enjoy viewing a 19th printing press in action. It’s noisy and with lots of moving parts. Over 40,000 books were printed from the press viewed today both in Te Reo (Maori) and English
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KORORIPO HERITAGE PARK – NORTHLAND
The precinct is home to Stone Store, Kemp House, Kororipo Pa and Te Ahurea,Rewa’s Village. Kids will enjoy observing jars of boiled sweets in the Stone Store. Te Ahurea, Rewa’s Village is a reconstructed fortified pa village complete with store houses, whare (homes), carvers and an extensive traditional Maori garden. Te Ahurea Rewa provides kids with a glimpse into pre-European Maori daily life.
Find the ancient pear tree in the orchard of the Stone Store complex.
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WARKWORTH MUSEUM + BONUS PERRY KAURI RESERVE
Warkworth’s local museum packed with oddities and an intriguing kids programme sheet to explore the museum. Check out the Warkworth Perry Kauri Reserve collection of vintage buildings including one labelled the ‘dunny’ and an original 1920’s jailhouse. Adults will be interested in the vintage World War II military huts.
PERRY KAURI RESERVE – BONUS
Massive 400 year old Kauri tree and a small picturesque Perry Kauri Reserve adjacent the Warkworth museum. The short reserve boardwalk has carefully labelled trees and bush describing their medicinal and traditional use as well as geographical coverage.
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SCANDRETT REGIONAL PARK + BEACH, AUCKLAND
Scandrett Regional Park has a beach with rock pools, sandy beach and fascinating vintage dairy buildings complete with the sound of cows mooing as they are milked. Kids can look at 1950’s milking sheds, farm equipment and wonder about how difficult it was to farm in a remote part of the Auckland region.
Discover donkeys in Algiers Bay and wonder how the donkeys got there. The donkeys are found in the Highfield Reserve with views of Kawau Bay.
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NORTH HEAD – MILITARY HERITAGE – AUCKLAND
Maungauika North Head park and Devonport Torpedo Naval Museum are great places for kids and adults interested in military stories.
Nearby is Rangitoto Ships Graveyard and Wreck Bay. The adjacent coastline of Rangitoto is a graveyard for at least 13 ships that were dumped between 1887 and 1947. The Rangitoto hulks are now protected as a significant historic heritage place.
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CHELSEA SUGAR FACTORY – SWEET NOTES
Glorious cafe lunch for the kids, a factory tour in a dazzling pink hi-vis jacket and discover the story of a sugar refinery with its origins in the 19th century Fiji sugar trade. The Chelsea Sugar Factory took 18 months to complete and was built using one million hand-made bricks. These were made out of the clay, which had been excavated from the site. The current factory and Heritage Park are open to visitors and is part of the 5 Heritage Regional Parks near Auckland, day trip: guide by Best Bits.
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MTG MUSEUM – HAWKES BAY & NAPIER
Discover a museum where kids are actively encouraged to push buttons, jump on exhibits and experiment with a rotary dial telephone. The museum has free entry with free tours and a dedicated kids programme.
Make sure not to miss, the must visit earthquake simulation and surivor stories exhbition.
NAPIER PRISON – BONUS ATTRACTION
Grab the opportunity and tour Napier Prison. The oldest prison in New Zealand is now a tourist attraction with self-guided audio tours, guided day or night tours linger over the site of four public hangings, and hear stories about notorious inmates. Wonder how you would cope with a hard day chisling stones by hand from the adjoining cliff face.
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CLASSIC FLYER MUSEUM – TAURANGA
Discover a place where busy engineers are refurbnising aeroplanes as you walk around. View the guts of a World War II fighter jet and kids can hop into the seat of a vintage plane and imagine what it was like. Explore the interior of a surveillance World War II plane, the confined space and feel the sense of palpable danger the pilots and crew experienced.
Find out what aerial crop spraying entailed in the cafe with its pictorial illustrations.
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WESTPORT COALTOWN MUSEUM
Fascinating things to do for kids at the Westport Coaltown Museum. Original mining machinery can be kick started into life with a push of a button, there is an authentic full sized replica of a mining tunnel evocatively recreating life underground and numerous personal stories of life as a miner or miners family on the Denniston Plateau.
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SHANTYTOWN – GREYMOUTH, WEST COAST
Shantytown heritage park is a great place for kids to wander down a replica 19th century heritage street and hear stories about the heroes and villains who once occupied the buildings.
Greymouth & Grey district heritage places of interest – Best Bits check Jacks Mill a minature model school built by pupils and for older kids Brunner Mine site with its somber story of the risk and dangers of underground coal mining.
Check out family fun, things to do in the area and your holiday schedule with the kids just got easier.
AND WE HAD TO INCLUDE A PLACE WHERE KIDS GET TO SEE RACING CARS
CLASSIC SPORTS CAR MUSEUM – CROMWELL, OTAGO
Discover 9 Southland motoring museums worth a detour, travel guide with something for the everyone. A kids favourite is Classic Sports Car Museum NZ | Highlands Museum, in Cromwell, Otago. New Zealand’s newest motoring museum is spectacular to look at and fun to visit. You can even get behind the wheel. Try a hot lap in a range of supercars and race cars. There’s also a Go Kart track, and Highland hosts several major motorsport events per year. Attractions are Go-karts, U-Drive, We-Drive.
BEST BITS TRAVEL GUIDE
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