One of
The world's largest
private collections
of aircraft, vehicles
and toys.
Welcome to the National Transport and toy Museum, Wanaka
Come on a Journey!
Welcome to the National Transport & Toy Museum, Wānaka!
Housing one of the largest private collections in the world, our Museum features four major buildings housing over 600 vehicles, twenty aircraft and 70,000+ toys and miscellaneous items. This world of transport is a classic car museum, a toy museum and an aviation museum all rolled into one - and the result of a lifetime of collecting by one man, the late Gerald Rhodes. His legacy is now carried on and cared for by his children, Debbie and Jason.
The perfect Wānaka activity - no matter the weather!
The collection combined with our Toy Shop and gift shop make the Museum the perfect thing to do in Wānaka with kids - in Winter or Summer, rain or shine. We offer one of the largest toy stores in New Zealand with thousands of items - toy cars and trucks, remote control cars, Airfix models, puzzles, board games, dolls - and over 300 varieties of Lego. You name it, we’ve got it!
Make it a great day out for the whole family with our indoor and outdoor play areas, dollar rides and arcades, adult-sized pedal cars and anti-aircraft guns which you can sit on and control. We are also Wheelchair accessible.
Come on a journey through time with us today. We’re open every day except Christmas!
Explore:
have you Seen Us on the big screen?
A number of our exhibits have been featured in films including ‘The World's Fastest Indian’, ‘Perfect Creatures’, ‘Bride Flight’, ‘Waste Lands’ and ‘Water Horse’, ‘Pete’s Dragon’ and, most recently, a new series starring iconic Kiwi actress Rebecca Gibney - ‘Under The Vines’.
“What an amazing place for young and old. The collection of toys, cars and planes are amazing. Their toys took us back to our childhood and I would imagine it would be very hard to get children out the door. Would highly recommend.”
Looking for fun things to do in Wanaka and Queenstown?
Take a trip down memory lane at our 19th century treasure trove- the only transport and toy museum in the Queenstown Lakes and Central Otago areas.
We’re less than ten minutes drive from central Wānaka, adjacent to the Wānaka airport on State Highway 6, and easily accessible from Queenstown (one hour drive) and Cromwell (30 minute drive).
The transport collection includes:
A huge range of vintage and classic cars, from Austins to Wolseley
Military exhibits including trucks, guns and tanks
Fire engines and ladder trucks
Motorbikes from B.S.A. to Velocette
Trucks, tractors and heavy construction equipment
Buses
Boats and motors
Civilian and military aviation from the 1930s to 1990s, with 20 planes on display, including a walk-inside display.
Our Museum also has the largest number of toys on public display in New Zealand. The nostalgic collection of 70,000 toys has something to fascinate the child in everyone. We’ve got toys from the early 1900s such as antique toys and dolls, teddy bears, remote control cars, money boxes and thousands of scale model car toys. We’ve got all the well-known names like Tonka Trucks, Tri-Ang, Sylvanian Families, Dinky, Hornby and Matchbox - plus New Zealand’s largest display of Barbie and Star Wars memorabilia.
