Pirate School Sets Sail Again!

Edwin Fox Pirate School was once again a huge success during the school holidays.

Information

Type

News

Date

October 14, 2026

Plan Your Visit

Our ticket pricing below is in NZD and is priced per person.

Adult

(

ages 15 and over

)

$15

Kids

(

ages 5 to 14 years

)

Kids Under 5

(

)

FREE

Book Now

Our popular Edwin Fox Pirate School was once again a huge success during the school holidays, with young pirates flocking aboard for a fun-filled day of learning and creativity.

Led by our Heritage Educator, Andrea Selwood, the session gave aspiring buccaneers the chance to discover the power of the wind while creating their very own colourful windmills, Andrea also showed them how to make rope with Flax. After all that hard work, the crew enjoyed a refreshing cup of lime cordial and some traditional ship's biscuits to keep their energy up.

It was wonderful to see so many children embracing the pirate spirit and enjoying hands-on maritime-themed activities at the museum.

If you missed out this time, don't worry. Pirate School will return in January as part of the lead-up to the Picton Maritime Festival, ready to welcome a new crew of young adventurers aboard!

We look forward to seeing you there.

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Testimonial

A must visit especially if you want to learn about your ancestors and how they came to New Zealand. Very interesting and lots of information about the ship that bought many of our ancestors to New Zealand. Interactive, good for kids and very interesting video. Worth spending at least an hour looking through. Staff were very knowledgeable and keen to help. Good variety of merchandise for sale.

A must visit!

Wonderful to see the Edwin Fox in dry dock being preserved for the future. The story of how it happened including captivating displays, personal stories and easy to digest explanation via a top movie presentation shown in the 1st floor mini theatre together bring this important history to life and make you glad you visited Picton.

An Important story for NZ and Australia

What a great museum!!! So well curated with informative displays and to be able to walk around the ship is an amazing experience. Would highly recommend.

A little gem of a museum. If you are in Picton just go, you won’t regret it!

Excellent price for what's on offer. I loved the upstairs room with the chronology of the boat, the documentary video about it, and also the more general history of shipping in the area. The ancient boat itself was the cherry on top. Great experience and thoroughly recommended!!

Delightful museum

Wow this was a gem we didn't expect. A lovely museum full of stuff, a really interesting short movie about the Edwin Fox - and seeing a real 1853 convict ship in real life is one of those once in a lifetime things! Well worth the entry fee. Thank you .

Wow this is a gem!

Exterior of the Edwin Fox Maritime Museum, a stone building with a gray metal roof, set against lush green hills and blue sky.