03-07-2025
Event noticeboard: Manu Aute, majestic felines and dreamy pop
The Spinoff's top picks of events from around the motu.
Last year a kite came into my life. I found it in a clearance box at the surplus supermarket Why Knot on sale for $1. It's about one metre wide and shaped somewhat like a whai with a black body and a long rainbow-striped tail. A sucker for bargains and activities to do with friends that aren't just sitting around drinking, I bought it home with me. The price did not include a line, but luckily there are various semi-seized and otherwise bad fishing reels in my shed, and one was easily rigged up.
Lovely things happen when you fly a kite. Your friends can easily find you on a packed beach. You can loiter while looking busy. Sometimes that secondhand feeling of soaring can bring a tear to the eye. But my favourite is when you fly it in a park, everyone who is walking or running through is totally awestruck by the beauty of the flying nylon construction. They stop, point it out to their companions, take photos of it and smile. Meanwhile, all you have to do is stand there holding the line and keeping an eye on the wind.
This Sunday, hundreds of kites will be flown from the summit of Puketāpapa Manu in Auckland. Some will be so big that they have to be tied down to cars, and the flapping cluster will be visible from kilometres away. It's one of my favourite days on the city's calendar so my whai will be there, probably tangling other peoples lines.
Show: 74th Annual Hamilton Cat Show
Tamahere Community Hall, 21 Devine Rd, Tamahere, Hamilton
10am Sunday, July 6
$5 – $10
I have wanted to go to a cat show since reading Hairy Maclary's Showbusiness over and over again to my little brother. Of course Hairy Maclary gets loose inside, terrorises the cats and gets tangled in the bunting. But what I love most of all is the wonderful cats. The big white fluff, the snooty (but still cute) persian, the black grumpy one and all the little kittens.
Its hard to know exactly what a real-life cat show is like. There's online clues that cats are measured, weighed, taunted with long feathers and are in to win cellophane-wrapped hampers that include scratching poles. The Hamilton Cat Club officially promises over 160 'majestic felines' and an opportunity to vote for your favourite.
Whangārei
Dance: Céilídh Dance
Roost Restaurant & Bar, 28 Bank Street, Whangārei
6:30pm Saturday, July 5
$25
Follow a dance caller to join in the traditional group dances as a live Gaelic folk band (including a fiddle) plays.
Tāmaki Makaurau
Summit of Puketāpapa / Mt Roskill, 1109 Dominion Road
11am Sunday, July 6
Free
An annual spectacle of huge and tiny kites. Bring your own to fly or simply watch.
Raglan
Gisborne
'Dream-pop luminaries French for Rabbits return to the stage in full band formation for the first time in a year.'
Te Whanganui-a-Tara
Rongomaraeroa (Te Marae), Level 4, Te Papa Tongarewa
12.15pm Monday, July 14
Free
A lunchtime literary event series has begun in the city. This Monday hear from the authors of Surplus Women, Amma and This Compulsion In Us.
Nelson
Saxton Oval Pavilion, 142 Saxton Road East, Stoke, Nelson
10:30am Sunday, July 6
Free entry to the food and market stalls
Go eat something yum!
Ōtautahi
'Every year thousands of musicians congregate to celebrate the magic of brass bands and inspire the next generation by competing on the big stage from all across the motu.'
Isaac Theatre Royal, 145 Gloucester Street, Christchurch Central City
7:30pm Friday, July 4 and 2:30pm Sunday, July 6
$79-$129
NZ Opera presents Puccini's biggest banger! This staging of the OG tragi-romance stars an incredible local and international cast of singers accompanied by Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.
Ōtepoti
The Crown Hotel, 179 Rattray Street, Central Dunedin
8:30pm Saturday, July 5
$10-15
The banging duo HŌHĀ celebrate their 50th gig with Vagina Dry, Diesel Jenny and Synthetic Children.
Wānaka
Visual Art: Lost & Found
Gallery Thirty Three, 33 Helwick Street, Wānaka
10am – 5:30pm Monday – Friday,10am – 4pm Saturday – Sunday
Free entry
A playful exhibition bringing together beauty and the beast, pop-culture, colourful creatures, whimsical paintings, reimagined items and bad apples.
