2 Best Sights in Western Springs, Auckland

Since the 1990s, this zoo, 6 km (4 miles) west of Auckland, has focused on providing its animals with the most natural habitats possible, as well as on breeding and conservation. To catch a glimpse of New Zealand flora and fauna, spend time in the New Zealand Native Aviary, where you walk among the birds, and the Kiwi and Tuatara Nocturnal House. A number of music events are held in summer on the zoo grounds.

Six km (4 miles) west of Auckland, this is a fantastic place for anyone with a technical bent. A fascinating collection of vehicles, telephones, cameras, locomotives, steam engines, and farm equipment is a tribute to Kiwi ingenuity. The aviation collection includes the only surviving Solent flying boat. One of the most intriguing exhibits is the remains of an aircraft built by New Zealand aviation pioneer Robert Pearse. There is a reproduction of another he built in which he made a successful powered flight around the time the Wright brothers first took to the skies. The flight ended inauspiciously when his plane crashed into a hedge. But Pearse, considered a wild eccentric by his farming neighbors, is recognized today as a mechanical genius. MOTAT, as the museum is called, also has the scooter that former Prime Minister Helen Clark once rode.