Matariki season: look up, slow down

When the star cluster Matariki rises in the mid-winter sky, it marks the Māori new year — and since it became a public holiday, the season has grown into one of the best weeks in the national calendar. The kaupapa is threefold: remembering those who have gone, celebrating the present with the people you love, and planning for the year ahead.

How to spend it

Communities across the motu mark the season in their own ways — dawn ceremonies, kai gatherings, light shows, storytelling. Check your local events calendar rather than assuming; the best Matariki events are often the small ones that don’t advertise far beyond their own rohe.

And the simplest observance costs nothing: get up before dawn on a clear morning, find the cluster low in the north-east, and start the year by looking up.