Ngā mihi mo te tau hou!

Ngā mihi mo te tau hou! Happy New Year! Matariki, our native New Year, starts today - co-inciding with the longest night of the year, which is tonight.

Traditionally perhaps, this has been a time of hiberation and retreat. However, in the last few years, as the concept of Matariki has emerged into the wider public consciousness, we've also seen a renewal of events, celebrations, and things to do in this cold, bleak time before the earth warms again in spring.

There's a plethora of things to do in Tamaki Makaurau over the month of Matariki. Most of them are free - we're looking forward to the Matariki Festival Market down at the Cloud.

The 2degrees Kapa Haka Super 12s will be on - with amazing, innovative kapa haka performances. Ray McVinnie's done a lovely menu for Matariki in the June edition of Cuisine that I'm planning on trying out during the month of celebrations and new beginnings.

We might need a warming dinner this weekend too, as the Paradice Ice Skating Aotea Square Ice Rink opens on Saturday 23 June. Perhaps I'll make scotch broth to warm my little skaters when they get home from what is promising to be a winter delight!

While you're in Aotea Square, suss out the Edge's wonderful Pick and Mix series of FREE events for families, starting with the always popular free performance from the Royal New Zealand Ballet at 10.45 am Saturday 23 June. Get there early to get seats!

Lucy Green, photo by Ross Brown.

The dancers will be performing excerpts from Cinderella, one of my favourite classical ballets - with the seven-city tour of this much-anticipated season starting on August 2 in Wellington, and ending September 9 in Auckland.

We'll be picking and mixing as much as we can - there really is no better way to introduce children to the wonder that is live performance! Felix and Zoe are both off to the National Youth Theatre's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Edge later this week, another fantastic introduction to theatre for families.

The theatre production I'm looking forward to the most at the moment is the return of the critically-acclaimed local production of The Arrival, based on the graphic novel by Sean Tan. Commissioned for the Auckland Arts Festival in 2009, Red Leap Theatre are bringing it all back home for three performances only - starting Friday 13 July.

Completely without language, this ground-breaking theatre work uses puppetry, music and physical theatre to convey the sense of nostalgia and dislocation felt by migrants, refugees, and displaced peoples. I missed this at the Festival, to my ever-lasting regret. I won't be missing it now!

So get the crockpot on, rug up warm, and get out there amoungst it, Aucklanders! Even if the weather outside is frightful, you'll be transformed by the alchemy that happens when artists and audience come together.