Celebrating Auckland's 175th birthday weekend.
Storytelling has always been in Mike Mizrahi's blood. He brought drums and dancers and carnival fun to Auckland when the Warriors first launched as a professional rugby league team in 1995, kept the town amused through the America's Cup parties, before wowing the world with events. . Who could forget the spectacular that he, wife Marie Adams and their crew from Inside Out Productions, put on for the launch of the Rugby World Cup? The dancing cranes, the acrobats on skyscrapers. It was Olympic-scale extravaganza.
But Auckland is still the company's home town, so Mizrahi is pretty chuffed to be invited by Auckland Council to put on the party for the city's 175th birthday this weekend.
Town will be all about getting people back on the streets.
"Just by shutting down Quay St, the whole town feels like anarchy. Yay, the people come first!" he says.
The whole of Queens Wharf is taken over, with Shed 10 housing the immersive multi-media show, but the happenings start out on the street.
The brief is big, and the company has responded with the biggest of everything.
"This is history for the selfie generation, we want people to take photos of themselves here and now, with the photos of the past. We're making history here, then in 25 years, or 100 years, people will look back at this like we're looking at old celebrations."
The team's starting point was the huge jubilees of previous generations, starting with the entrance to Queens Wharf, which will be framed by a giant floral arch. These were common for royal visits or when big fleets called in during the war. Mizrahi is kind of hoping they'll make a comeback for all future big events. Through the past week the Cloud was filled with greenery and flowers as the team built the 2015 version, based on archive photos from all around the country. More than 50 people have created the combination of low and super-high tech storytelling.
A waka manoeuvres on the Waitemata Harbour on the second day of Auckland and New Zealand's jubilee celebrations, January 30, 1890. Photo / Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries
They tracked down a stunning photo from the Auckland 50th Anniversary regatta - a splendid waka on the water - one of the oldest photos of the city celebrations. For this century's version, Ngati Paoa are lending their mighty 18m-long Te Kotuiti waka.
The then-and-now show starts next to the red fence with a history of transport, from very early horseless carriages ("freaky vehicles, not a bit like cars, that came later. They are things of beauty and fascination," says Mizrahi), through classic cars to the latest, smartest BMW. Folks from the Howick Village will dress up and offer horse and carriage rides through the weekend.
Also along the waterfront is the country's largest-scale photographic exhibition. Giant 7m by 3.6m billboards are cleverly placed so you slip back in time: a scene of the wharf 100-odd years ago, placed so you can see the wharf today, old Queen St iconic buildings in front of their modern counterparts. There is also an app to download which has the same cool effect.
The arch and decorations in Lower Queen St to mark the arrival of the US Fleet, 1908. Photo / Sir George Grey Special collections, Auckland Libraries, 1-W91.1
After walking through the labyrinth of of prints, visitors are guided into the show itself in Shed 10 and the magic begins.
Through the dark, moody entrance, full of ambient sounds of the city, up the stairs to the first "wow" reveal: a 17m screen showing the earliest views of Auckland in 1840, morphing into today. A breathtaking panorama of the city will start the "wow I didn't know that" reactions Mizrahi hopes to provoke through the whole show.
Visitors will then walk through the first storytelling of Auckland. Live performers, accompanied by music from haunting Maori instruments, will tell the stories and myths of Tamaki Makaurau - the gods, the volcanic legends, the more recent histories - in rotating 20-minute sessions.
The finale of this stage of the work is a gorgeous five-minute video from Ian Taylor's Animation Research, animating the legends from through to Auckland today. A wall of suitcases, representing the flow of immigrants into Auckland from the first canoes onwards, has projections of the town as it grows from first people onwards.
Visitors head downstairs for yet more clever storytelling. Starting with the founders of Auckland, chief Apihai Te Kawau who first invited Governor Hobson to share this isthmus, Mizrahi has taken early portraits and morphed them into modern actors telling each person's story. He emphasises that there is no sugar-coating - every one of the speakers tells their version of their histories, warts and all. Some are contradictory, there is no one definitive version.
Live performers, accompanied by music from haunting Maori instruments, will tell the stories and myths of Tamaki Makaurau.
A further 12 famous early Aucklanders, from all ethnic communities, are storytelling in this section. It is mesmerising and engaging. Again, the producers hope that modern Aucklanders will revise their understanding of the city, learn how many of those early visions are not too much different from today's hopes for the town.
The show winds down with a series of witty "lounges" - typically Kiwi homes of various eras running TV news clips of what happened in our town from the 1940s to the present.
Though there is plenty of building and scenery action, Mizrahi emphasises that the theme of the show is people and their stories. A serious amount of research and script writing gives each participant an authentic, current voice.
Auckland Council and ASB, who have sponsored this, are keen to welcome as many people as possible: the venue is designed to cope with thousands of viewers at a time moving through.
Next door at The Cloud is a market showing off Auckland's ethnic diversity - food, crafts and design from all of the city's vibrant communities.
Download the new super app event guide on to your smart phone. During the weekend you can look through the viewer of your phone to travel through time: an augmented reality shows the present view of downtown superimposed with past and future views. Follow a marked trail through Downtown and the waterfront for an historical treasure hunt, watch an "historic" video, find out about entertainment and offers. The app will stay live through the year with things added like future developments, heritage and cultural events.
The free Queens Wharf shows:
Today, 10am-6pm; tomorrow, 10am-10pm (approx); Monday 10am-6pm.
A Story of Auckland, Shed 10:
Today until Monday, 12pm-6pm (ASB customer access from 10am).
HMNZS Otago:
Open house today, 10am-6pm, tomorrow 10am-3pm.
The party starts Sunday:
HMNZS Otago concert, Sunday , 5.30pm-9.30pm.
Hosted by Mikey Havoc with a family friendly flavour, the concert includes Motor City Funk, Tami Neilson, the Royal New Zealand Navy Band, the Modern Maori Quartet and Will Crummer and the Rarotongans. Annie Crummer will sing a "big finish" song leading into the fireworks.
Harbour/Sky Tower Fireworks display, 9.30pm.
Quay St from lower Albert St to Commerce St, plus lower Queen St are closed to traffic all weekend. Queens Wharf holds 9000 people, but the concert will also be screened at SeePort at Captain Cook wharf. They tracked down a stunning photo from the 50th Anniversary regatta - a splendid waka on the water. A waka manoeuvres on the Waitemata Harbour on the second day of Auckland and New Zealand's jubilee celebrations, January 30 1890.
If you need a break from the slopes or don’t fancy a ski, there’s still a lot to do this.