MOTAT Museum of Transport and Technology

This guide to MOTAT in Auckland opens with a 1960s feud with Christchurch railway fans over century-old steam locomotives, so heated it spawned a rival museum across the country. It traces the museum's 1960 founding under aviation engineer George Bolt and its 1964 opening on a former Western Springs quarry. Along the way it visits the aviation hall's disputed claim about farmer-inventor Richard Pearse and early flight. Ride the vintage trams looping past the gates while you listen.