New Zealand Museum of Transport & Technology

Took the Missus for a quick trip to Aukland on the weekend and ended up spending half a day at the Museum of Transport & Technology (MOTAT). Not a lot in the way of trucks but still a good place to look around and even the Missus enjoyed it.

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Some red trucks for Bugly's and Beaver.


A couple of unusual vehicles


Even several Melbourne trams still in daily operation running between the two display areas

And an excellent airplane display

Worth a visit if you find yourself in Aukland

Yes, IHScout,

MOTAT is a great place. First time I saw a Vintage vehicle display was when I was but a lad of 19 and saw a newspaper ad for a car show at Western Springs, the first municipal water supply for Auckland. It had long been unused as a water supply but the lake, of course was there and also the original beam-engine that pumped the water. These beam engines are so big, they support the building that houses them. You walk INSIDE the engine. (not inside the cylinders, etc) It is the oldest surviving beam engine in the world. The British are very jealous that they have nothing older as it was built in England.

At that car show, there was a 1921 Rolls Royce Ghost with a "For Sale 1000 pounds" (no pounds key on this computer) sign on it. I did a quick tally up and worked out that I would have to sell my car, empty my bank account and borrow a couple of hundred pounds, so I still do not have a Rolls Royce!

In the ensuing 50-odd years, the Vintage Car Club of New Zealand and others, developed the area into MOTAT. When I saw it some thirty years ago, it was in wonderful condition and had displays of almost any kind of mechanical item you could think of, including steam trains, trucks, cars, fire engines, (including an 18th century Shand Mason horse drawn steam pump) horsedrawn vehicles, you name it.

About ten years later, it was run down, with a lot of exhibits missing or in storage. They did have an airfield they had developed (or resurrected?) a few kilometres away and had exhibits there.

Now it is all spick and span again, they run tram services on their private full-sized tramway to and from their airfield. They have modern displays now and even have an IBM 360 computer, which was state-of-the-art when I did my Introduction to Computers course.

I was a little disappointed last time I was in New Zealand to see three volunteers trying to start a 1950's Wolseley car that had been donated. Between the three of them, there was no more mechanical knowledge than my ten year old granddaughter has!

All of it, including the airport, is in an inner suburb of the largest City in New Zealand.

MOTAT is a must-see if you are in the top half of the North Island of New Zealand.

I love it.
Morris.

Just for future reference ........ how did you arrange a trip to to Auckland so you could "end up spending half a day at the Museum of Transport & Technology"?

Such skills in deception need to be shared.

jimbo mushroom plan mate- keep em in the dark n feed em bullsh$t

Just for future reference ........ how did you arrange a trip to to Auckland so you could "end up spending half a day at the Museum of Transport & Technology"?

Jimbo, I just kept saying yes to everything she wanted to do until she finaly said, "is there something you would like to see before we go?" . I had the brochure I'd picked up at the tourist info place out of my pocket in an instant.
The surprising bit was that she really enjoyed MOTAT. As Morriss said, they have a little bit of everything, and their displays include a lot of interesting historical information.

As noted, there is a huge amount of variety at Motat, including a whole lot of social history (domestic NZ, NZ cinema).
Likewise, the NZ maritime museum, on one of the downtown piers, has both technical and social history.
There are lots of harbour-cruise options, on scheduled and tourist runs, on modern ferries and on yachts and preserved historic vessels.
There is also the bridge walk, run by the same company which does the Sydney Harbour Bridge walk.
The stunning Civic Theatre runs inspection tours.
A suburban cinema is home to a theatre organ, on which regular performances are given.

There will be other attractions which I haven't done, but the above are all ones which I have experienced and enjoyed. Further afield, I have attended hobby events at Glenbrook Vintage Railway. One recent tour was with Cinema and Theatre Historical Society. As well as the mixture of old & new, closed and surviving, large & small, we visited a lot of transport sites. One was a North Island car scrapyard which was used as a set in a Mad Max movie. We also visited Southward Museum (north of Wellington), and others in South Island. The ladies and the men derived equal enjoyment, both in the society's main field, and in the related technical hobbies.

Hence, there is a lot to attract couples to Auckland, even if only for a weekend, with no con job needed.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

I recently did Adelaide - Auckland

Thanks Bobsboy, certainly a great place to visit. One of those places that you never see it all in one go, and need to come back again!!

The bus is from the NZR (New Zealand Railways) Road Services division, and they had this model Bedford running inter-city, in and between towns, and on tourist routes. There must have been hundreds of them, and all looked identical.

thanks for that bobsboy that is one place I wouldnt mind have a looksee at NZ mrs mrsmack's pretty keen to have a look as well just got to get rid of the kid not long now
Paul

Cars and trucks get rotated, but some seem to have been gone for a long time. I know someone who works there a lot, I asked him where they were and he says ''in storage.'' They have a Pacific ex logger, and one of the first Fuso's. It was one of Refrigerated Freightlines (RFL) fleet of Fuso's, I was working for them in that period and have most likely worked on and driven that truck. It's not on any of the photos in this thread, so still in storage.

The Packard hearse was the hearse on Waiheke Island, I lived there for 10 years and remember it well....but never got to work on it, the Council mechanics got to do that. It wasn't the only vehicle used for hauling bodies on the Island - late one night I was down at the wharf, and a Mini van drives onto the wharf, and unloads a coffin which they put into the Police launch. The Police Launch Deodar - when first launched it had twin Foden engines with straight stacks...imagine being a crim and having that thing howling down on you. When I served my time my foreman had worked for Fodens, and worked on the Deodar instalation.

We used to get a yearly pass to MOTAT, costs less than 2 family passes. Any day with time to kill I'd take the kids to MOTAT, they all loved it. My wife served her time as a telephone exchange technician, they have old exchange gear in there, and can explain how that all works.

Western Springs, MOTAT, Western Springs Speedway and the Zoo, all at the same location...and a very popular place for people to be in Auckland.