Ngati Kahungunu Iwi events manager Te Rangi Huata has been organising events in Hawke's Bay to celebrate Matariki for 20 years. Photo / Warren Buckland
Ngati Kahungunu Iwi events manager Te Rangi Huata has been organising events in Hawke's Bay to celebrate Matariki for 20 years. Photo / Warren Buckland
The country's "longest fireworks show", a lantern parade, and a light display walk are among the big plans to celebrate the first Matariki public holiday in Hawke's Bay.
Matariki will be celebrated as a public holiday for the first time on Friday, June 24 - the newest public holiday inNew Zealand.
Matariki marks the beginning of the new year on the Māori lunar calendar and has been celebrated across Hawke's Bay for decades.
However, planning is underway to make this year's celebrations extra spectacular.
The Government has even announced councils can apply for funds through a $16.5 million allocation to build new infrastructure - such as walkways, lighting or signage - to support events for Matariki.
Current plans for the region include a food festival with performances staged on June 24 at Showgrounds Hawke's Bay in Hastings, which will conclude with a huge fireworks display.
"[The festival] will start about 3pm in the afternoon and conclude about 9pm or 10pm at night ... and will include the longest fireworks show in New Zealand," Te Rangi Huata, the Ngati Kahungunu Iwi events manager, said.
Ngati Kahungunu Iwi events manager Te Rangi Huata at Ātea a Rangi Star Compass near Clive. Photo / Warren Buckland
"Usually a fireworks site is about 100m wide. This will be 300m wide because the grounds are 500m long.
"It will be panoramic. Instead of it going up high, the display will go low and wide."
It will include nine locations in a row where the fireworks will be released - representing the nine stars in the Matariki (also known as Pleiades) star cluster.
A week-long remembrance event will also be held in Civic Square in the centre of Hastings during the week of Matariki.
Each night people will be able to write a message to remember a loved one who has died, and place it in a lantern.
There will be workshops for people to make their own lanterns and lanterns will be hung around Civic Square or released into the fountain.
"On the Saturday night [June 25] we are looking at doing a lantern parade from the Civic Square going around [the block] and coming back to the Civic Square for people to burn their lanterns in the braziers," Huata said.
"Matariki is a time to remember people that have passed away and also it's a time for us to give thanks for the harvest and the new planting season - those are the two aspects that we have honed in on [for our events]."
A lantern remembrance ceremony will also be held at the pond in Flaxmere Park during the four nights prior to it being taken to Civic Square.
Napier's iconic Ātea a Rangi Star Compass, near Clive, will also be the site of a new light display walk during the week of Matariki.
"We are looking at doing a Matariki light trail on the 600m walkway through the wetlands next door to the Star Compass, and we are talking with the Department of Conservation at the moment to get permission to do a light walk around those waterways."
That will be in addition to the long-standing Matariki celebrations held each year at the Star Compass.
Other events are also being planned across Hawke's Bay.
Napier Labour MP Stuart Nash said the funding which councils can apply for had an emphasis on physical infrastructure.
"I encourage local councils to put real thought into the infrastructure they want as part of a growing focus on the significance of Matariki.
"I hope to see them being creative with their applications for funds."
