Moa bones have gone missing from a small museum in Fiordland National Park. 

The bones, described as the hip, leg and foot bones of a moa, held together by wire, were in the museum at the historic Gunn's Camp. 

The camp, off the Lower Hollyford Road near Deadman's Track, has been closed since sustaining substantial damage in the February 2020 floods. 

"Sometime after the floods, possibly by 19 July and 5 August 2021, some moa bones have been taken from the museum," a Southern District Police spokesperson says. 

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"Police are appealing for anyone who knows anything about these bones, or where they may be now, to get in touch." 

Four similar bones - a right tibia, left femur, right tarso-metatarsal and dorsal vertebra from the 1800s collection of John Cummings - sold for about NZ$6000 in a Christie's auction in 2013.   

An entire skeleton of the three-and-a-half-metre NZ flightless bird, which was hunted to extinction, can fetch upwards of $50,000.

But it is now illegal to sell or collect moa bones from public conservation land. 

Similar moa bones, from the collection of naturalist John Cummings. Photo: Christie's

Gunn's Camp, also known as Hollyford Camp, was partially destroyed by landslides in the February 2020 floods, with 12 of the 15 cabins wrecked. 

The cabins had been there since 1938, used by trampers and hunters. 

Back-country cattleman Davey Gunn bought the camp in the 1950s, but when he drowned on Christmas Day in 1955, it was taken over by his son Murray, who added the museum. 

It commemorates his father, pioneer settlers and road builders. The museum burned down in February 1990 but was rebuilt by volunteers. 

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Murray retired in 2005 and the camp and museum were taken over by the Hollyford Museum Charitable Trust. 

The Lower Hollyford Road itself needed major repairs after the February 2020 floods, and was washed out again this weekend after rainfall. It is closed until further notice. 

Anyone with information can call police on 105 and quoting file number 210806/9161.