The National Transport and Toy Museum beside Wanaka Airport is one family's outrageous accumulation: more than 600 vehicles, 23 aircraft and over 100,000 toys across four big buildings, begun by Gerald Rhodes in 1950s Christchurch and run today by his family.
The aircraft alone justify the stop: a MiG-21, a GAF Canberra bomber, a Lockheed Lodestar and a Fokker Friendship among them, several open to walk inside. The vehicle halls run veterans to classics, and the screen credits are real: the Willys Jeep used in filming The World's Fastest Indian (which worked again in The Water Horse) and a 1942 Army Indian motorcycle that appeared in Hillary.
The toy half is its own destination: Star Wars and Barbie collections at scale, arcades, dollar rides, play areas and what the museum calls New Zealand's largest toy shop, stocking 400 plus LEGO varieties. Ten minutes from Wanaka, an hour from Queenstown, and reliably the region's best bad weather call.
