Find plenty of local artisan goods and stellar food at King's Birthday Market & Whānau Festival on the Auckland waterfront from June 2-3.
Find plenty of local artisan goods and stellar food at King's Birthday Market & Whānau Festival on the Auckland waterfront from June 2-3.
Looking for ways to celebrate and enjoy a three-day-long weekend?
King’s Birthday is being celebrated this weekend, so Kiwis around the country are being treated to an extra day off on Monday.
Saturday is also June 1, marking the official start of winter in the southern hemisphere.
So what should you do with the extra time? If you’re in Auckland this weekend, there are a range of unique and exciting activities like markets, exhibitions and shows to head along to with a group of friends or the kids.
Grey Lynn wine bar Freida Margolis will transform into a buzzy vintage market on Saturday.
Long weekends are made for morning market meandering, even in the winter. Head down to the sparkling gem of Grey Lynn, Freida Margolis, this Saturday when it transforms from a cosy wine bar to a buzzy vintage market. Pick up a hot drink and peruse the artfully curated collection of preloved and vintage clothes, NZ designers’ creations, vinyl, seasonal plants and flowers, vintage curiosities, NZ-made candles, crafts, and handmade jewellery. Of course, because it’s Freida’s, someone will be spinning vinyl and the atmosphere will be top-notch.
Auckland Museum has just opened its new exhibition, Relics: A New World Rises. Photo / Sia Duff
2) Relics: A New World Rises - Auckland Domain
A new exhibit opened at Auckland Museum this week that brings together objects from the past with an imagined future. Relics: A New World Rises is created by Australian LEGO® Masters Jackson Harvey and Alex Towler. In this exhibition, the high school best friends have imagined a future in which humans no longer exist and instead LEGO® minifigure civilisations have survived and thrived in our forgotten artefacts. It’s certain to delight anyone who has ever created scenes with LEGO or action figurines and pondered whether they may have sprung to life and moved while we slept. Equal parts nostalgia trip and flight of fancy, this is a museum exhibit that won’t require any bribery to excite the kids.
When: May 29 - October 13.
Where: Auckland Museum, Auckland Domain, Parnell.
Price: Adult $21; Child (5–15) $11; Family (2 adults, 2 children) $54; free for museum members.
3) King’s Birthday Market & Whānau Festival - Auckland CBD
This long weekend market is what you might call super-sized. Spread over two days at the Cloud, the King’s Birthday Market & Whānau Festival is much more than just some nifty trinkets and a coffee van. The expert curators from General Collective have put together a lineup of vendors selling a wide range of locally designed and handmade wares. Alongside them will be a pop-up playground, clay heart-making and face painting, upcycled sewing workshops, a picnic play zone, circus workshops and performances by Captain Festus McBoyle and the acrobats of 3 Ring Riot. There’s street food to fill your puku and DJs keeping the vibes festive. Catch the train into the city for a real metropolitan adventure for the whole whānau.
When: June 2 & 3, 10am-3pm.
Where: The Cloud, 89 Quay St, Auckland CBD, Auckland.
Price: Free entry.
Grab some gloves and join in on one of the planting days this weekend.
4) Planting days - Ōhinerau / Mt Hobson & Tāwharanui Regional Park
If you’re staying in town or not heading too far north this King’s Birthday weekend, why not put some mahi into your local regional parks and maunga? Ōhinerau / Mt Hobson and Tāwharanui Regional Park are both holding planting days this weekend where you can join other local volunteers and help keep this beautiful country of ours kakariki green. There’ll be rangers onsite to help guide the planting and provide you with gear if you need it or bring along your own spade and gloves if you have them. Clean, closed-toe shoes are a must to protect the parks from kauri dieback and your precious toes from injury. There’s nothing like a good honest day’s work in nature to make you feel good about life and grateful for the stunning lands we live on.
Community Planting Day with Tūpuna Maunga Authority
Where: Ōhinerau / Mt Hobson, Mt Hobson Lane, Remuera, Auckland (meet at the end of Mt Hobson Lane).
Tāwharanui Regional Park Planting Day
When: June 2, 9am-1pm.
Where: Tāwharanui Regional Park, 1181 Takatu Rd, Tāwharanui, Peninsula 0986.
5) French Film Festival Aotearoa
A warm movie theatre is the best place to be on a chilly long weekend and cinephiles are in luck because the French Film Festival Aotearoa opened this week and there are several screenings across this weekend at some of Tāmaki Makaurau’s cosiest cinemas.
You can order a vin rouge at any one of these theatres - The Bridgeway, Rialto, The Capitol, The Lido - and settle in for some French comedy, drama, suspense, documentary or romance. Peruse the programme, preferably with a French pastry in hand, and you’ll almost certainly find something that piques your interest.
When: May 29 - June 19 (in Auckland and up to July 3 in other centres).
Where: The Bridgeway, Rialto Newmarket, The Capitol Cinema and The Lido Cinema, Auckland.
Howick Children's & Youth Theatre is hosting three standalone productions across King's Birthday Weekend.
6) The Pied Piper & other stories - Howick
The bright-eyed performers of Howick Children’s & Youth Theatre are very busy this weekend with three separate productions taking place across King’s Birthday. The first is Romeo & Juliet, performed by a cast of teen thespians who’ve taken on the Bard with guts and gusto. The second is a retelling of The Pied Piper, performed by a cast of talented children. And lastly there’s Wishy Washy Wonky Stories, a collection of beloved children’s tales performed by the staff of HCYT as a fundraiser to keep this wonderful theatre society in business, spreading a love of theatre to future generations.
Where: Harlequin Theatre, 563r Pakuranga Rd, Howick, Auckland. Email hcyt@xtra.co.nz or phone (09) 537 4943 for tickets.
Yes, you have read that heading correctly, Making do rhymes with poo is a major new work by Australian artist Justene Williams that opened last weekend at Te Uru in Titirangi. The artist has been performing all week and the final live performance is this Saturday. During these performances, Williams moves around the gallery doing “menial tasks” to draw attention to the conscious and unconscious labours of the body, one of which is producing waste, hence the name of the show. Williams is a Brisbane-based artist who works with multimedia including video, photography, sculpture and performance. After Saturday’s final performance, the exhibition will continue until October, with videos of Williams’ performances replacing the live art. So this is your only chance to get the full performance-art experience as the artist intended.
When: Performances daily May 27-June 1, 10am-4pm (exhibition continues until August 4).
Where: Te Uru, 420 Titirangi Rd, Titirangi, Auckland.
Get into the spirit of Matariki later this month by attending a star-filled show at Stardome. Photo / Richard Parsonson CINEDESIGN Ltd.
8) Matariki shows at Stardome Observatory & Planetarium - Royal Oak
Instead of celebrating His Majesty this weekend, why not spend the long weekend celebrating something closer to home and getting into the Matariki spirit at Stardome. This year Matariki is June 29 to July 6, which means this weekend is officially Matariki month. Stardome’s show Ngā Whetū o te Tau Hou, the Stars of the New Year takes viewers on a journey to the stars where they’ll discover the ngā whetū/stars of Matariki and the legends and stories of the Māori New Year. It’s recommended for older children aged 11+ and there are multiple shows over the long weekend. You might also like to mark Friday June 28, the Matariki public holiday, in your diary, when Stardome will have a Matariki Open Day where visitors can attend free of charge all day.
Crowded House have just announced their Gravity Stairs tour in line with the release of their new album. Photo / Live Nation
Plan Ahead: Crowded House - Various locations
The concert itself may not be this weekend but if you don’t get your tickets for Crowded House’s Gravity Stairs Tour now, you run the risk of missing out on November’s big shows. The tour supports their new album, being released on Friday, May 31, and should be the soundtrack to your long weekend lounging. No longer twilighting as a member of Fleetwood Mac, Neil Finn leads the current incarnation of the band, which includes sons Elroy and Liam Finn along with Nick Seymour and Mitchell Froom. The tour kicks off in Wellington on November 9, making stops in Dunedin, Christchurch, Palmerston North, Tauranga and Hamilton, finishing up in Tāmaki Makaurau before heading across the ditch for the Aussie leg of their tour.
