Around Auckland – Nearby Aviation Attractions

In the first of a new series of posts, I’m starting to look at the aviation attractions to see around the various airports around the world that spotters visit.

Quite often, a city will have a second airport with some unique aircraft to see, or an aviation museum telling the region’s aviation history and displaying preserved aircraft.

In this post we’ll look at Auckland. The city’s airport is the main gateway to New Zealand, and is quite busy with large airliners arriving from around the Far East, Asia, Middle East and the Americas. It’s also a busy hub for Air New Zealand and its feeder airlines, and is also busy with cargo carriers.

Nearby Attractions
Ardmore Aerodrome is a former WWII USAF bomber base and is now a general aviation airfield around 15 miles east of Auckland International. It has a single runway and is the busiest airport in New Zealand by number of movements.

Mountain Air have their maintenance base here, and the airfield is home to NZ Warbirds restoration company in residence with a number of historic aircraft that are regularly flown and displayed. They have an immaculate DC-3 which operates scenic and charter flights from the airfield.

North Shore Airfield is situated 16 miles north of Auckland city centre. It is a small general aviation field which is popular for flight training. It also has flights to Great Barrier Island and a few other destinations. Movements can be seen from Postman Road which also runs past the parking aprons.

Auckland and many other airports are covered in my book, Airport Spotting Guides Far East and Australasia. It covers where to spot, what you’ll see, nearby attractions, spotting hotels and detailed maps for each airport.

Buy here