Issue 12 A quarterly magazine for Kiwi Kids Abroad Visit us at kiwikidsabroad.com Your seasonal dose of Kiwi arts & creativity History & science Environment & conservation Māori & Pasifika culture Sports, adventure & activities Fun stuff & competitions In this Issue: Page 3 The potato stamp kākāpō Page 4 A pāua shell house!? Page 6 The taniwha Page 8 Brain buzz quiz Bookmarked Bird of The Year NZ music now playing A Lion in the Meadow The kākāpō is a nocturnal, flightless – By Margaret Mahy Kia Ora! parrot that’s just a little unusual. Known Soaked by BENEE by some as ‘moss chickens’, they A Kiwi classic, and much loved once used to roam throughout New Move over Lorde, tale from one of New Zealand’s If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, spring will be arriving, Zealand before becoming critically a new girl is in town! Hailing most celebrated children’s and new buds sprouting. Maybe you’ve met some baby endangered. Now there are only from Auckland, Benee, a authors, Margaret Mahy. lambs? Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, we’re heading into about 200 of these guys left. 21-year-old singer-song autumn and the leaves are turning in to beautiful shades of That didn’t stop the kākāpō beating writer’s beats are an A Lion in the Meadow is about red, orange and yellow.. You can’t help but look around and out the competition to become the alternative pop and indie a little boy who is worried that say ‘wow’! 2020 Bird of The Year. with an RnB swing. he has seen a lion lurking in the meadow outside the house but A great place to experience autumn in Aotearoa is Central Although these birds don’t fly, they Maybe you’ve heard her his mother won’t believe him so Otago where the trees put on a magical show. An especially have pretty big wings which means tune Supalonely? It gained she gives him a matchbox… What beautiful place to be at this time of year is in Arrowtown they tend to uh… awkwardly tumble international success after happens next, you’ll have to read where they throw the Akarua Arrowtown Autumn Festival to out of trees. Luckily, they’re pretty taking off on TikTok. celebrate the arrival of autumn. What’s it like in your part of the world? to find out! good climbers, using their talons and Send us a photo or drop us a comment and if beaks to scale sometimes 100 feet Did you know Central Otago is technically a desert? Once you’re lucky we’ll share your submission in the up into the trees. known by gold miners as the “heart of the desert”, Central next edition of Tamariki Times. Otago is the closest you’ll come to experiencing one in New In honour of the Bird of The Year Zealand with its hot, dry summers and not a lot of rain. Contact details on page 8! 2020, we have a crafty project that’s pretty simple to make and lots of fun. New Zealand’s golden girl The wild West Coast earns a top 100 crown Welcome to Hokitika, the real wild west of New Zealand, and home to the country’s most New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern (or better iconic Wildfoods Festivals. Where festival goers known by Kiwis as Aunty Cindy) has been recognised by celebrate by eating weird and wonderful Forbes as one of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. kai (food) found by foraging in nature. Think creepy crawly treats such as huhu grubs, crispy Throwback track Did you know that Jacinda was the first world leader in tarantulas, jellied fish eyeballs, grasshoppers and 30 years to have a baby while in office and the world’s even pig snouts on a stick! Slice of Heaven youngest female leader? She also made history as the first by Dave Dobbyn world leader (ever!) to attend the United Nations general Not so keen on the kai? Luckily, there are many assembly meeting with her baby, Neve. other things to do at the festival, from live music, Spending eight weeks firework displays, and a ‘Feral Fashion’ dress-up at number 1 on the New Jacinda encourages girls all over the world to competition, where punters dress up as all sorts Get to work. Zealand music charts in dream big, and teaches us it’s cool to be kind. The potato stamp of things from shower loofas to action figures! 1986, and featuring on kākāpō 1. Squirt the three colours of paint the soundtrack for the So, polish up your gumboots, and get ready to try onto your pallet animated movie, ‘Footrot Flats: The Dog’s Tail Tale’. something really wild on the West Coast. 2. Paint the end of the cut potato Gather your supplies, and carrot with green and white Your parents will surely WIN! you will need: (this will be your kākāpō’s body A potato know this one. Play this song and feathers) then stamp the cut in half on YouTube, for a family We’re going on a native bird hunt! How many potato on your paper to create sing-along! Da da da ba du native birds do you see hiding away in this issue A carrot a head and body. Stamp the end cut length da da ba du da da da ba du of Tamariki Times? of the kākāpō’s body with your ways da da da da da da! carrot stamp to create its tail Paper feathers A paint 3. Use the black paint (or even mix brush it with white to make grey) with A pallet Green, your paint brush to paint the final Count them and tell us how many you can find! white + black touches - the kākāpō’s eye, legs There’s a bundle of delicious Whittaker’s Native paint and beak! Bird chocolates to be won! 4. Let your picture dry, take a photo Email with your answer to: [email protected] (a piece of wax paper of your masterpiece and get a to be in the draw to win. or plastic plate will do) guardian to send it to us. 2 Tamariki Times Issue 12 3 Fred and Myrtles The real story of the Pāua house. very hungry caterpillar. Although found around the world, the monarch butterfly is the queen of the New Zealand garden and is our largest common butterfly. Interestingly, the monarch butterfly is considered a New Zealand native because it became established here egg all on its own. Scientists think that the monarch butterfly flew from New Caledonia butterfly or Vanuatu to Australia by cyclones, and then hightailed it across to New Zealand years later. Kiwi kids enjoy watching these marvellous bugs change from an egg to a caterpillar and then to a chrysalis (pupa) each summer. Inside this chrysalis, the monarch butterfly is transforming. After a week or two, the adult butterfly will emerge and hang upside down for a few hours, drying its wings before flying off to lay more eggs terpillar Down at the very bottom of New Zealand is the small town of Bluff, which was and start the process all over again. ca once home to two local celebrities, Fred and Myrtle Flutey. Kiwi monarchs have unique migration patterns and their behaviour How did they come into fame you ask? The story years that the home was open to the public. They differs from their northern friends. When the temperature drops below started in the 1960s, when Fred worked at the loved having visitors and let them look around at 13 degrees monarchs all flock together to milder, sheltered spots to harbour and collected pāua shells to sell to no charge. trees with rough bark to hold onto, called ‘overwintering sites’. These chrysalis jewellery makers and tourists. Pāua, a name given sites are based in Northland, Hawke’s Bay, Nelson and Christchurch. (pupa) by Māori to Haliotis Iris snails, is considered a In 1990, Fred and Myrtle received a certificate Christchurch is particularly spoilt with many ‘overwintering sites’, so local treasure and valuable to jewellers because of Merit from the New Zealand Tourist Industry there are many places to spot large clusters of monarch butterflies of their iridescent colours. There were lots of Federation. Tim Shadbolt, the Mayor of hanging in trees. It’s a pretty fantastic thing to see! pāua in the shallow waters around Bluff, so Invercargill, commented that the couple were what Fred couldn't sell he would bring home to invaluable to the area and that their home his wife, Myrtle. attracted attention and brought people from all over the country to Bluff. Sometime in these early years, Myrtle decided to decorate a mirror in the living room with the The infamous collection is no longer in Bluff, pāua shells. Myrtle loved how they looked, and but now has a home in the Canterbury Museum, Too bloomin’ tired of moving around the shells to clean, she where a replica of the home was constructed, began to hammer each shiny shell on to the walls and the collection was carefully put back of their home. together using old video footage and photos. cute! Over the next 40 years the collection grew. With over 1,170 individual shells, every surface Answers to Where in New Zealand? in their living room was soon covered, and the A. Wellington, The Beehive B. Cromwell, New Zealand’s most famous doctor and the face leading the Kiwi neighbours began to take notice. The Flutey's Giant Fruit C. Taihape, Giant Gumboot Covid-19 response, Dr Ashley Bloomfield has had a collection of welcomed visitors into their home to view their D.