Free Travel Newsletter : June 2018
Written by Steph Kendall
Brought to you by New Zealand Tourism Guide www.tourism.net.nz.
Meat, motorcycles and museums! This month, we've picked out a few highly diverse offerings on New Zealand's event calendar that you can include on your travels. You have the chance to celebrate our indigenous Matariki, the Māori New Year; explore the beautiful home of the Governor-General and the Royal Family (when they visit New Zealand), and to view the very best international exhibitions on tour here too. We've also highlighted the Winter Pride Festival in Queenstown, the Adventure Capital of New Zealand – it's not until September, so there is plenty of time to plan your trip still!
Read more about:
- Government House Guided Tour
- Children's Discovery Trail
- Let Me Be Myself - The Life Story of Anne Frank
- Wellington Sky Show - Matariki ki Pōneke 2018
- Making the Most of Your Meat
- Motorcycle Show Manawatu Classic Club
- Gay Ski Week QT and Winter Pride '18 Festival
- New Zealand Fast Facts
Government House Guided Tour
Location: Government House, Rugby St, Newtown, Wellington
Date: Various in June, July and August
Built in 1910, and extensively refurbished in 2008-11, Government House is the home of New Zealand's Governor-General and of the Royal family when they visit New Zealand.
Tours begin in the Visitor Centre with displays and films and then explore the house including the ballroom, formal dining rooms and reception rooms. The house contains many artworks, carved coats of arms and gifts from around the world. Where weather and mobility permit, garden tours are offered with views of the remaining walls of the Mt View Asylum (1870-1910).
Tours are fully guided and free of charge. Onsite parking and wheelchair access available. Tours are in English. Sign language interpreters can be arranged dependent on notice and availability.
Places are limited. Bookings are essential and must be made in advance. More information on the Government House website.
Children's Discovery Trail
Location: Hamilton Gardens, Cobham Drive, SH1, Hamilton, Waikato
Date: 27 June – 4 August, 8:00am – 5:00pm
The Hamilton Gardens Discovery Trail will take children on a journey where they can explore an enchanting world of secret-themed gardens.
Behind every door, there is a magical story and a portal through time to far-flung corners of the world. Explore a lush tropical garden, mystical ancient China or let your imaginations run wild in the Renaissance Prince's 16th-century garden.
A free Discovery Trail sheet (in both English and Mandarin) is available to download from the Hamilton Gardens' website to see where the bees, hens and woodland critters are hiding.
Let Me Be Myself - The Life Story of Anne Frank
Location: Dominion Museum Building, 15 Buckle Street, Wellington
Date: 27 June – 22 July, 9:00am – 6:00pm
Created by the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and brought to New Zealand by the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand and many generous sponsors, the exhibition "Let Me Be Myself - The Life Story of Anne Frank" is a beautiful and well-considered look at what happened in Central Europe during the 1930s and 40s.
Using the life and diary of Anne Frank as a gateway, the exhibition looks at themes of intolerance and prejudice that rose from Nazi Germany and contains a chapter in which young people of today address subjects like identity, exclusion and discrimination. The education programme is based on peer education where secondary school students, who have been trained and mentored, take their fellow students on guided tours and explore how these themes are still present today and what we can each do to affect real change.
Wellington Sky Show - Matariki ki Pōneke 2018
Location: Wellington Waterfront, Wellington
Date: Saturday 7 July, 6:30pm – 7:00pm
Nau mai, haere mai – your whole whānau is warmly invited to celebrate Matariki, the Māori New Year. Rounding out Matariki celebrations will be the Wellington Sky Show at the Wellington waterfront. This landmark event sees the Wellington harbour light up with a spectacular fireworks display. Please note: Fireworks display will star promptly at 6.30 and be approximately 10-12 minutes long.
Making the Most of Your Meat
Location: Nairn Street Cottage, 68 Nairn St, Te Aro, Wellington
Date: Sunday 15 July,10:00am – 12:00pm
Learn to make the most of your meat with Terry McKee of Island Bay Butchery. Using a leg of lamb and whole chicken, Terry will demonstrate how to make the best cuts using techniques such as rolling, butterflying, portioning and gourmet cuts, giving expert preparation and cooking tips along the way. - Bookings essential.
Motorcycle Show Manawatu Classic Club
Location: Barber Hall, Waldegrave Street, Palmerston North
Date: 28 – 29 July, 10:00am and 9:00am
Display of motorcycles of all ages, origins, and categories plus trade displays. It has been four years since the last one, so don't miss it. The Manawatu Classic Motorcycle Club will make a donation to the Arohanui Hospice with proceeds from the show.
Gay Ski Week QT and Winter Pride '18 Festival
Location: Queenstown, South Island
Date: September 2018
Gay Ski Week QT is transforming into Winter Pride, a festival in a small town with a bold heart that celebrates love, community, diversity, visibility and inclusion. It is a festival that encourages locals and visitors alike to come together and celebrate their diversity.
This year's festival is placing a renewed emphasis on growing the On-Mountain Series with designated mountain resorts hosting the festival each day and free ski / boarding guides available. Also, Winter Pride Apres Ski in town, live music / DJs, good drinks and company. Plus Off Mountain Series and the Pride Party Series plus for the first time a Men Only event. Lots of choices for everyone.
New Zealand Fast Facts
The World's Fastest Indian is a 2005 New Zealand biographical movie based on the New Zealand speed bike racer Burt Munro and his highly modified Indian Scout motorcycle. Munro set numerous land speed records for motorcycles with engines less than 1,000 cc at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in the late 1950s and into the 1960s. The movie stars Anthony Hopkins and opened on 7 December 2005 in New Zealand. It quickly became the highest grossing local film at the New Zealand box-office.
