The museum also had memorabilia from the New Zealand explorers, including a painting of the young Sir Edmund Hillary in one of the marble stairwells to the upper level.
Portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary at the New Zealand War
Museum
The museum's contents, however, were devoted primarily to relics from the Maori indan tribes, who were of Polynesian origin long before the English or French arrived. One item that attracted my attention especially was the last war longboat of the Maori, which ocupied the back of the main floor. It was roughly 30-40 yards long, with ornate iron carving on the prow, about five feet high.
Outside the museum, which was situated on a low hill in a less populated area of Auckland, there was a monument to the soldiers, with the inscription, "The Glorious Dead". I'm not sure I can appreciate the message in that inscription.
The monument outside the war museum
All around the building, which was a square with one semicircular end, above each window, was the name of one of the places that New Zealand soldiers had fought.
Windows of the museum, with inscriptions