Museum

Picton Heritage & Whaling Museum

Two thousand items of Māori, whaling and maritime history, on the site of the original Waitohi pā.

Photo: Daderot / Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Run by the Picton Historical Society on London Quay, overlooking the foreshore. Whaling implements, items from the Mikhail Lermontov wreck, and a piece of one of Cook's gun carriages from Ship Cove.

Rainy-day option
Good with kids
Near the ferry
No car needed
History

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At a glance

Cost: See the museum's own site
Getting there: On foot — on the waterfront street
Address: 9 London Quay, Picton
Indoors: Yes
Collection: About 2,000 items spanning Māori, whaling and maritime heritage, some dating to the 1700s

A fragment of oak and copper sheathing displayed in a museum case — A piece of one of Cook's gun carriages, from the January 1770 landing at Ship Cove. Daderot / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

About Picton Heritage & Whaling Museum

The museum sits on London Quay on the site of the original Waitohi pā, looking over the foreshore. Its roughly 2,000-item collection spans Māori, whaling and general maritime heritage from Waitohi / Picton and the Sounds, with some items dating back to the 1700s — among them harpoons and whaling gear, salvage from the Mikhail Lermontov, and a fragment of oak and copper sheathing from one of Captain Cook's gun carriages, used at his first landing at Ship Cove in January 1770.

It is a short walk from the Edwin Fox, so the two make a natural indoor pair on a wet day.