Ashburton Aviation Museum

This Ashburton Aerodrome has a significant aviation history, having been a training base for the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II, with 50 Tiger Moths based here. The museum itself started with a meeting in 1974 to establish the Society, which was incorporated in 1986 and became a registered charity in 2008.

The collection here began with a former RNZAF training Harvard, purchased in 1978. It was kept in a farm shed while volunteers raised money and built a hangar, which opened in April 1991. You'll see around 40 aircraft in the two buildings, including military planes and exhibits on civil aviation in the Canterbury Region. They have the only British Aerospace Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3 "Jump-jet" in the Southern Hemisphere, and a former RNZAF Douglas Skyhawk, which is on loan from the US Airforce. There's also a de Havilland Vampire that had very few flying hours with the RNZAF and was restored after being recovered from a children's playground. The Southern DC3 Trust's historic Douglas DC-3 airliner ZK-AMY, retired in 2014, is also here, along with many model aircraft. The museum had 4500 adult and 3300 child visitors between April 2022 and March 2023. In 2022, it won the Excellence in Tourism award and a Highly Commended in the Excellence in Not-for-Profit category at the ANZ Business of the Year Awards.