Stuff To Do This Weekend

Today we're heading out (in the beautiful sunshine, thank you Auckland!) to the Big Day Art at the wonderful Auckland Art Gallery. There will be live music, workshops where you get creative and one of our city's best dance crews is performing.


The Pick n Mix season is back on at the Aotea Centre. Today rap crew The Hypnotics are performing and then running a workshop. Learn how to beat box!


The Wynyard Explorer is back for the school holidays and look at that, finally a sunny day! Kids are just $1 and along with a ticket for the tram they have to sleuth around and find answers to questions about the area so it actually fills up a good hour. 


The Auckland Museum have a bunch of cool things to do today as part of their Camera exhibition. Plus a giant camera you can climb around in!


Botany Town Centre has got all kinds of things happening during the school holidays including today. Some free, some for a small price. Check out today's schedule here. 


Billy T : Te Movie is showing for free at Manurewa Marae at 4pm today! They're also showing four short Maori films before hand. Everyone is welcome, just bring a gold coin for tea and biscuits at intermission. Love that's it's a nice and early so you can all have a bit of a night out.

This weather is pretty perfect for the zoo which is great because today there will be a guided walk around Te Wao Nui, the beautiful native bird sanctuary, as part of Matariki. It's hosted by the Auckland Museum and so there will be some Taonga Puoro (traditional Maori instruments) specialists coming along for the walk.


On Sunday afternoon ditch the kids with the grandparents for an hour or two and go see the free film screening at the Art Gallery! Four different short Pacific Island themed films as part of the new HOME AKL exhibition. 


Of course if you'd rather lounge on your couch in the sunshine, the kids can still learn how to beatbox thanks to these helpful videos from Biz Markie!

Stuff To Do This Weekend

One of the coolest Christmas events on this weekend is Motat Night, Christmas Lights. Just a gold coin koha for entry and it looks pretty magical!


Christmas At The Zoo is on this weekend too so go wish the lions some holiday wishes. 


The Muka Print Exhibiton - strictly for under 18s only - is on this weekend. Don't miss out! 


If you're still looking for Christmas presents/haven't started yet check out the Aotea Square Christmas Markets. They've got free entertainment too!


Definitely make the trip to Franklin Rd in Ponsonby to see the amazing Christmas lights displayed on people's houses. There's also a list here of different neighbourhoods in Auckland with light displays.


I took Haeata to see Santa at Smith & Caughey's yesterday and amazingly the cue wasn't that bad (I suspect because they had two Santas, just quietly). For $10 you get entry into the Enchanted Forest, all lit up and full of moving puppets, and then a photo with one of the best Santas on offer this side of the North Pole. So much more worthwhile than lining up at some fluorescently lit mall. And of course they have the best window displays outside the store too!


Tonight in Aotea Square there are Burundian Drummers playing at 6pm and then Batucada and the Brazilian Divas are on at 7pm. There is entertainment happening there all weekend and all next week so check out this schedule for more. 


Have a great weekend and remember to take time out to just chill.

Christmas at the Zoo

Christmas at the Zoo is on this week from the 14th to the 18th. They've changed things around a bit this year so instead of having one night they're spreading the activities over 5 days. There's a puzzle trail, Christmas themed animal encounters and Santa appearances. 

Check out the Zoo website for more details.