New Zealand National Archives

The New Zealand National Archives hold a wide variety of government—and some personal—documents and papers. They are a very small facility, located in Wellington, and I was sometimes the only researcher in the reading room.

Strengths:

Online Finding Aid System: The National Archives have a reasonably thorough, intuitive search system with pretty good keyword searching capacity and accurate file descriptions. If you are looking for a particular file, you will be able to find it, and thematic searching is pretty reliable.

Relaxed: The New Zealand National Archives are a particularly friendly and collegial place to research. Getting in is easy and involves no metal detector scans or unreasonable hassle. The staff is well informed and enthusiastic. They are especially pleased when foreigners are studying New Zealand and are eager to help. 

Photography: Photography is permitted with few restrictions (the usual rules prohibiting flash photography, tripods, paper shredders, etc.).

Weaknesses

Document Delivery: The archives require you to notify them in advance which files you’ll be looking at. This is so they have time to track them down and put them on a cart for you. If you are going to be there for several weeks (and I can’t think why you would be there that long), they would be happy to take orders for second batches. Otherwise, you’ll get only what you knew you wanted to see in advance.

Wellington: I know we are in this for the research, but the location of the archives does affect our overall experience. So be prepared with the knowledge that Wellington is meh. It’s not awful, but it would have been nice to research in Auckland or Christchurch instead. That said, New Zealand has some of the best beers and wines around, and unlike Australia (which is inferior in both) you can enjoy the fruits of New Zealand without breaking the bank.