The great New Zealand summer calendar is liberally sprinkled with some guaranteed seasonal hits to add a bucketload of fun to your family holiday. I’ve rounded up a selection of signature events and exhibitions, strung across the nation, that you may well want to thread into your domestic vacation plans this summer. 

String Auckland and January into the same sentence and those words are synonymous with the tennis, the ASB Classic, at Stanley St. But there’s another prime-time sporting spectacle waiting in the wings – SailGP. The long-awaited SailGP Auckland debut promises high-octane racing action in front of some of the world's most passionate fans on 18 and 19 January, off Wynyard Point. Elevated allocated Grandstand seating in the shoreside Race Stadium ensures fans are close enough to smell the salt as the high-tech, high-speed flying F50s do battle just metres from downtown Auckland on the Waitematā Harbour. Back hometown heroes the Black Foils led by local legends Peter Burling and Blair Tuke while enjoying live race commentary from a dedicated MC and post-racing entertainment for an unforgettable racing experience. Tickets are available. https://www.aucklandnz.com/events/sailgp-auckland   

For something completely different in Auckland - Dinosaurs of Patagonia. Dinosaurs of Patagonia is a world-class, highly successful exhibition designed for science museums. Auckland was not initially included in the world tour, because Patagotitan, the latest dinosaur ever found, was too big for the preferred venues. However, a last-minute change saw the Logan Campbell Centre adapted so that the exhibition could be housed there. Featuring life-size casts of Southern Hemisphere dinosaurs, the starring attraction is Patagotitan mayorum.  The world’s largest dinosaur weighs 70 tonnes and measures 38 meters—about the length of three school buses! The exhibition is on until January 30. https://www.aucklandnz.com/events/dinosaurs-of-patagonia   

For more mighty species, head to the Auckland War Memorial Museum for this summer’s Sharks exhibition. It’s just opened, running until April. Created by the Australian Museum, Sharks invites you to explore the fascinating, and often misunderstood, world of sharks. Come face-to-face with life-sized scientifically accurate shark models, including one of the most famous and feared species of shark, the Great White Shark. Learn through artifacts and tactile displays; be immersed in a 3D interactive scan of a shark body; and see the world in a 360-degree view through the eyes of a Hammerhead Shark. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a quarter of the world's sharks are threatened with extinction. Sharks presents the very latest information on conservation, sharks’ impact on oceans, and efforts to protect sharks 

In Wellington, fashionistas will flock to Te Papa this summer. The museum will be the first venue to kick off the global tour of Vivienne Westwood & Jewellery. Designed and curated by the house of Vivienne Westwood and produced by Nomad Exhibitions, this touring exhibition dives into the extensive history of jewellery design and creation by the Vivienne Westwood house. From a stall in Portobello Road market, London in the 1970s and later incorporating costume jewellery as statement pieces within catwalk collections, the exhibition dives into the extensive history of Vivienne Westwood’s jewellery design and creation, across the decades. Staged at Te Papa for three months, it kicks off on January 17, 2025. 

Not to be outdone, Dunedin has quite the exhibition this summer at Tūhura Otago Museum. It’s 2530, humans have left the planet, and a new world has risen! LEGO® Minifigures have taken over, building intricate civilisations in the artefacts left behind, each inspired by the objects they now call home. That’s the thrust of this immersive exhibition, RELICS: A New World Rises, created by Australian LEGO® Masters Jackson Harvey and Alex Towler. Among the relics, you’ll find a grandfather clock repurposed as a time machine, a cryonics facility tucked inside a vintage refrigerator, and a retro arcade that’s been transformed into a futuristic spaceport. After smashing ticket sales in Australia, RELICS: A New World Rises now lands in Otago for a limited time. This popular exhibition will inspire visitors of all ages to explore the world within a world, with an important message of sustainability woven through the stories and play. The exhibition is on until the end of April. 

Photo / Supplied

It might well be our favourite Kiwi summer headliner, the TSB Festival of Lights, which transforms New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park into a lavishly illuminated night-time wonderland. It opens December 21 and runs through to January 26, fusing arts, community and nature for five weeks of glowing summer evenings in the heart of Taranaki. Free to the public, the TSB Festival of Lights is New Zealand’s favourite, and longest-running light festival, with a host of massive lighting installations. Check out the lights from a different perspective – by boat! Eight ‘glow’ row boats are available to book each night. Over 150,000 people flock to the annual festival – half from out of town. www.festivaloflights.nz  

I also have a major soft-spot for one of New Zealand’s oldest summer beach carnivals, the Caroline Bay Carnival. Timaru’s big bash celebrates its 114th outing this summer, running from Boxing Day for a fortnight, with a daily and nightly programme of family fun, live entertainment, fairground rides talent quests and competitions. There’s a timeless, down-home vibe to the carnival. Some say it’s a bit hokey. I think it’s as classic as Hokey Pokey. www.carolinebay.org.nz 

Caroline Bay Carnival. Photo / Mike Yardley

For a complete change of scenery, if you happen to find yourself on the wild West Coast in late January, make a date with Driftwood & Sand. Staged annually at Hokitika beach, this incredibly creative festival, transforms the beachscape, as participants compete to construct the most artistic, whimsical and wondrous sculptural pieces, washed up from the Tasman Sea. The size and audacity of some of the sculptures is outrageously good. The next festival is held from January 22-26. www.driftwoodandsand.co.nz  

Towards the latter part of summer, wine buffs should make a date with the Marlborough Wine & Food Festival, New Zealand's longest-running wine and food festival, now in its fourth decade. It’s next outing is set down for February 8. Blenheim accommodation will book out, so lock in your in plans, pronto. www.marlboroughwinefestival.co.nz  

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Mike Yardley is our resident traveller on Jack Tame Saturday Mornings.