Matariki - by Ruan Hamman (R8)

I was having pizza for tea inside my house. It was a cold night. I went outside to gaze at the moon. Suddenly I remembered that we were going to make lanterns for the Māori New Year. I ran inside shouting "we forgot to make lanterns!" so my mum said "okay, let's make some."

We had finished our lanterns and were ready to light them. As soon as we lit them I could felt it trying to get away from me. I held it tight. We let them float right up to the sky. All at once there were lanterns. "The lights are cool" I said. Today was the Māori New Year. When they were in the sky I noticed that two of the lights went out. Now there were 7 lanterns in the sky and they are known as the 7 stars of Matariki.

The Forest Fairies and the Stolen Stars of Matariki - By Courtney Smith (R8)

Behind the dusty dry hills where the sun stretches down to the sea was the hill of wai paki paki where the stones sit for Matariki (the Māori New Year). One night as we watched the moon slip behind the wispy night clouds, something caught my grandma's eye. In the distance she spotted the delicate white skin that belonged to the cheeky by mysterious forest fairies. It was dark. The only beautiful lights were the glowing stars and the crescent moon. The cheeky fairies had taken the littlest most brightest star of all - Rangi Rua. They took her to their dark crooked cave.

Matariki - By Cohen Bain (R7)

It was a dark and stormy night in the big sunless forest. Izaak and I were camping in an unstable bivy. It was not that comfy, but it would have to do! So we huddled in the bivy. It was getting dark. The wolves started to howl and the owls started to hoot. We got scared by the minute. Let's go for a walk. We looked up in the sky and we saw that seven stars of Matariki were gone. Izaak and I saw a twinkling of fairy dust...

Te Ra and the 9 Stars of Matariki - by Jessie Roff (R7)

"Te Ra, Te Ra" giggled the 9 stars of Matariki. "Te Ra, come out and play." "No" groaned Te Ra. The fairies wanted to make Te Ra come out and play at night. This happened every night until one of the stars came to see Te Ra and saw that he was gone. The stars searched the mysterious night sky, but there was no sign of Te Ra. In the morning the people of New Zealand were riri (angry), very riri. The kids were pōuri (sad). "We can't play" they wailed. The people of the village sent Maui to get Te Ra (the sun) back.