The Māori kite is known as manu tukutuku or manu aute. Manu means both kite and bird, and the word tukutuku refers to the winding out of the line as the kite ascends. The image above is the aute tree that many kites were made from.

Kites were flown to celebrate the start of the Māori New Year, when Matariki (the Pleiades) appeared in the mid-winter night sky.

You can read more interesting information about Manu Tukutuku - Māori kites and also how Tāwhaki ascended to the heavens and retrieved the baskets of knowledge on a kite made from the bark of the aute (paper mulberry) tree in this article from Te Ara - The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. 

This is the legend our school haka is based on, so a very interesting read.