Parents and guardians need not fear the school holidays. Tauranga has myriad events and activities on offer to keep the kids entertained.
In the Tauranga Art Gallery's daily Art Hunt, which runs from 10am to 4pm, participants can hunt through the gallery for art clues and work towards a small prize.
Marketing co-ordinator Emma Bossley says the Art Hunt is a fun way for families to spend time together exploring the gallery.
"The Art Hunt is inspired by two new exhibitions, Christina Pataialii: Proximity and Distance and the Acorn Foundation Junior Art Awards, which showcases a diverse range of exceptional creative talent from our youth.
"Visiting the gallery is a great way to foster a lifelong love of the arts."
The gallery also has printable online resources for families to get arty together, including different creative projects using art materials and tools from around the house.
"Using everyday materials from around your home is a great way to recycle and create something fun, interesting and unique," says Bossley.
"We have ideas for materials that could be used for drawing, painting and making sculptures."
Head to www.artgallery.org.nz/getting-arty-from-home.
The gallery is also holding a school holiday programme. Week one focuses on fantastical clay plates and week two is about abstract painting on canvas. Book on the gallery's website.
Meanwhile, ReMaker Space has a range of workshops available, including creating a planter box, textiles, stop-motion animation and more.
ReMaker Space creative administrator Alyssa Reed says about 12 workshops are going on and people should book quickly at the ReMaker website.
"We encourage young people to come if they are wanting to be creative, get their hands dirty, and learn new skills," she says.
"It's a great starting point if you want to experience doing creative things out of school, show more initiative and make new friends interested in the same things."
Tauranga City Libraries also has a range of events to help keep the young ones entertained and learning.
Activities that don't need to be registered for include creating a bouquet for someone special, making an Anzac poppy in remembrance of those who have served in wartime and creating a door tag to swing from your bedroom door.
Activities which do need registration include Awesome Autumn for ages 3-6, Lego Fun for ages 4-10, Keva Building Challenge for all ages, Crazy Librarian Escape Room Experience for ages 11-14, and Code Creator: Tilt Controller Challenge for ages 10-14.
For more information, dates, times, locations and booking links, go to the libraries website.
Families can also unlock hidden science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) challenges and tasks within Tauranga's CBD, using the STEM Wana's STEM Explorer Trail, an app experience made by a group of local young people.
Participants can complete challenges as an individual or a team, explore the CBD and win prizes.
Founder of STEMFest Tia Lush says it's a free web app, available at stemexplorertrail.nz.
"It's to encourage our community to support local businesses in Tauranga's CBD, and is a great activity to do together as a family."
STEM Wana is a charity and organises the award-winning STEMFest which returns in October.
Craniums Tauranga manager Kelly Shepherd is excited to have school holiday activities back for the first time after lockdown.
She says there'll be an activity space in the shop with free activities for children every day.
Each week there are also two free, supervised activities from 11am to 1pm with limited spaces.
For the first week's supervised activities, Monday is Craniums Reward Passport Launch and Wednesday is Straw Shooter Rockets.
In the second week, Tuesday is Simple Sew Finger Puppets and Thursday is Pompom Monsters.
"It's nice to get back into it again and, all going to plan, we will be doing them every school holidays."
For more information go to the Craniums Tauranga Facebook page.
For those children who love sports and staying active, the BayActive school holiday activities at Trustpower Arena include holiday tumble time, a basketball holiday programme, and a football holiday programme. For dates, pricing and to book, go to bayactive.co.nz.
Families can also enjoy the DreamWorks animated motion picture Madagascar coming to life on stage with Madagascar The Musical.
It follows all your favourite "cracka-lackin' friends" as they escape from their home in New York's Central Park Zoo.
The international stage set and costumes from Madagascar The Musical's world tour are in New Zealand with an all-local cast of professional actors performing at Trustpower Baypark Arena from April 23 to April 25. Tickets from eventfinda.
In the school holidays lead-up, Sport Bay of Plenty's regional play systems lead Steph Reichardt was encouraging parents, grandparents and caregivers to allow their children to play and get involved.
"There is definitely no age restriction on play. In fact, intergenerational play can be the most memorable. Having grandad play in the sandpit, or nan teach knucklebones, would be a great experience for all kids.
"As we age, play tends to get more structured and more rule-bound, let's let the kids make the rules and be open to having fun.
"We, as adults, are the enablers of play. If we say yes a little more often, and actually take time to listen to the kids then I'm positive more play will be enabled."
She said play provided a great opportunity for kids to take risks and learn to communicate how they were feeling.
"It is a wonderful way to distract from the pressures of work and school and it's something we can do individually or with others.
"It is important in building children's resilience and fundamental movement skills."
What's On
- April 18: Gillian Moore School of Dance Competitions Group Night. 6.30pm to 10pm. Baycourt Community & Arts Centre. General admission $10. Tickets at premier.ticketek.co.nz.
- April 20 and April 27: Relief Printmaking for School Children. 9.30am to 12pm. The Artery Art Learning Space, The Incubator, The Historic Village. Cost $40 per workshop. Book at www.theincubator.co.nz/the-artery.
- April 22: Mauao Draw Squad for ages 9 to 13. 3.30pm to 4.30pm. Mount Maunganui Library. Free.
- April 22 - April 25: Tauranga Society of Artists Original Art Expo. 9.30am to 5pm, except Sunday 12.30pm to 5pm. Tauranga Boy's College Gymnasium. Free.
- Thursday, April 22 and Thursday, April 29: Multi Plate Relief Printmaking for School Children. 9.30am to 12pm The Artery Art Learning Space, The Incubator, The Historic Village. Cost $40 per workshop. Book at www.theincubator.co.nz/the-artery.
- Friday, April 23 - Sunday, April 25: Madagascar The Musical. Various show times. Trustpower Baypark Arena. Tickets available at www.eventfinda.co.nz.
- Friday, April 23 - Saturday, May 8: Tauranga Musical Theatre presents West Side Story. Tickets at www.iticket.co.nz.
- Saturday, April 24 - Sunday, April 25: I Dance Studios presents Our Pinocchio. Baycourt Addison Theatre. Book at premier.ticketek.co.nz.
- Sunday, April 25: Range of Anzac Day services around the city. For full list and information go to www.tauranga.govt.nz/exploring.
- Tuesday, April 27: Parris Goebel presents The Royal Family Dance Crew. 7pm to 9pm. Baycourt Addison Theatre. premier.ticketek.co.nz.
- Wednesday, April 28: ACE Brass concert. 7pm to 9pm. Baycourt X Space. Tickets at premier.ticketek.co.nz.
- Thursday, April 29: Remembering the Battle - Commemorating the Battle of Gate Pā. 4pm to 5pm. St George's Anglican Church, 1 Church St, Gate Pā. Free.
- Friday, April 30 and Saturday, May 1: The NZ String Quartet, Four Suits & A Soprano. 7.30pm to 10pm. Baycourt Community and Arts Centre. Tickets at premier.ticketek.co.nz.
- Saturday, May 1: 3 Speed Crunch Box Rebooted. World-touring, crazy stunt people from Dislocate. 10am to 11am and 1pm to 2pm. Baycourt X Space. Tickets at premier.ticketek.co.nz.
The jury's marathon deliberations ran for two weeks.