Tour Group Bookings
Otago Wonders – STandard Tour
Explore the best that Tūhura Otago Museum has to offer in this captivating 50-minute tour.
One of our knowledgeable guides will show you the highlights of the Museum’s seven permanent galleries, ensuring you don’t miss a thing.
As we journey through both natural and human history, you’ll see everything from exquisitely carved pounamu (greenstone) and a 17-metre-long waka taua (Māori war canoe) to the towering South Island giant moa and the biggest eagle the world has ever known.
If you’re a first-time visitor, or interested in a little bit of everything, this is the tour for you!
Stories of the South
A journey through southern New Zealand’s living history
Standard Tour
New Zealand’s dramatic southern landscape has shaped and been shaped by people for centuries.
Learn about the movements of early southern Māori as they harvested resources from mountains to sea. Hear how waves of immigrants built wealth through gold mining, farming, and new industries. Explore how the region’s natural resources—from grass to gold, fur seals to flax, and clay to coal—created unique southern ways of life.
We’ll introduce you to an Otago you wouldn’t recognise—a subtropical “Everglades” home to ancient crocodiles—and show you a giant marine reptile that once swam offshore.
Discover how modern conservation efforts are now reshaping the region once again as we look to preserve the life and landscapes native to New Zealand.
Duration: 50 Minutes
Premium Tour
This expanded version of the Stories of the South tour caters to people who appreciate extra detail and smaller group sizes. We dive deeper into the natural history of southern New Zealand, using touchable objects from the Museum’s collection to bring you closer to the past.
Duration: 60 Minutes
Bespoke Tours
Interested in something in particular, or a different time to suit you?
We are also home to New Zealand’s largest science centre, with an indoor Tropical Forest teeming with live rainforest butterflies, and the only 3D planetarium in Australasia. There is something here to intrigue and entertain every visitor.
Our café and gift shop are the perfect place to refuel and find some treasures of your own.
With guided tours, hands-on interactives, live shows, theatre productions, immersive environments and behind the scenes opportunities, we cater to every age, interest and ability.
Tūhura Science Centre
Our science centre is a place to discover, learn, and play.
Inside the only bicultural science centre in the world, you will experience one of the Māori creation stories through a mixture of traditional knowledge and cutting-edge science and technology. A three-storey indoor slide, a bike-riding skeleton, and 43 other hands-on interactives will awaken curiosity and reveal the science in everything that surrounds us.
Explore the indoor tropical forest with exotic butterflies, a five-metre-high waterfall and a sky bridge. Kept to the humidity and warmth of a tropical rainforest, this is the hottest place in Dunedin!
Find more info here
Planetarium
Tūhura Otago Museum boasts the southernmost planetarium in the world, a 360-degree dome theatre that surrounds visitors with the wonders of space. Daily live shows, including the Night Sky Live show, offer captivating explorations of the Otago night sky. On weekends and holidays, kids can enjoy interactive science experiments. Check our website for the latest line-up of documentaries, films, and cult classics – there’s always something new to discover.
Special Exhibitions
Tūhura Otago Museum hosts world-class travelling exhibitions showcasing captivating displays that encompass a diverse array of themes and topics. With a commitment to providing enriching experiences for visitors, the Museum consistently brings in exhibitions of the highest calibre, drawing in audiences from both near and far.
