Close message

Summer

Summer is about warm weather, outdoors, picnics, surfing, boating and barbecues. It’s also a time to be mindful of sun, water and fire. Explore the Great Kiwi Summer and its associated activities and festivals around New Zealand. SCIS no. 1822092

Filter by media type

Display as

The Great Kiwi Summer

The Great Kiwi Summer

Images of Kiwis enjoying the summer: picnics and pools, barbecues and beaches. Community content sourced from APNK-hosted Kete around New Zealand. http://www.aotearoapeoplesnetwork.org/content...

Summer hummer

Security guards squirt water to cool the crowd at Masterton’s Summer Hummer music festival in 2003. Held every February, the one-day event is aimed at the region’s youth. It attracts up to 10,000, ...

Summer fashions

Summer fashions

Article about a spring and summer fashion parade from 1959.

Summer Child Studies

Summer Child Studies

Whites Aviation captures the youthful essence of summer with this series of photographs in 1947.

Summer

A cartoon about summer weather.

‘By summer seas’

‘By summer seas’

A painting by Charles Sims.

A summer camping party

A summer camping party

A SUMMER CAMPING PARTY AT WAIKAWAI BAY, MANUKAU HARBOUR. Auckland Region (N.Z.)

Popular picnic ground

Every weekend in the summer time, families from town and country flock to Coe’s Ford, on the Selwyn river.

Spray tanning for summer

Spray tanning for summer

More and more New Zealanders are standing in the firing line of spray guns in the quest for the ultimate tan.

Summer fire

Excerpt from Weekly Review No. 287. WELLINGTON.... SUMMER FIRE 129 ft. Contains footage of a large scrub fire near Wellington New Zealand. The Rural Fire Service tackle the blaze.

Mangatoi summer school picnic, on the Mokau river

Mangatoi summer school picnic, on the Mokau river

Photograph of first Mangatoi School picnic, on Mokau River, taken February 1928 by Robert E Wells. A motorboat is in the foreground. Pupils are diving into the river from the punt in the backgrou...

Weather Tips from Weather Nerds - Wildfires

Weather Tips from Weather Nerds - Wildfires

Summer is fire season in New Zealand.

Picnic at Foxton beach

Picnic at Foxton beach

Members of the Presbyterian Bible class having picnic. From left: Shirley Salter; Beverley Newton; Helen Dunlop; Beth Thompson, Jocelyn Mead; David Hounsell (in front); unknown; Elayne Thompson; un...

Summer day at Pines beach

Summer day at Pines beach

Typical Christchurch summer day at Pines Beach. Blue sky, scattered cloud, easterly coming off the sea. My brothers and sisters and their families making castles in the sand. Who is having more fun...

‘Summer’ by Margaret Mahy

‘Summer’ by Margaret Mahy

Poem about summer by Margaret Mahy.

Summer’s nearly here

Summer’s nearly here

Cartoon referring to summer and the start of the fishing season.

Barbeque on Westshore beach, Hawke's Bay

Barbeque on Westshore beach, Hawke's Bay

Description: Recreation - Picnics - Barbeque on Westshore Beach, Napier. Photographer: J. Waddington Date: February 1975 Archival reference: AAQT 6539 W3537 152 / B7409 www.archway.archiv...

2010 Surf lifesaving little nippers

2010 Surf lifesaving little nippers

Little Nippers out at Papamoa Beach, 2010

More than 600 rescues this summer

More than 600 rescues this summer

Beach-goers are being warned to remember the basic rules of safety in the water.

Summer holidays

Summer holidays

Come late December and thousands of Kiwis get ready for their annual holiday. They look forward to lazy days at the beach or the bach (or crib), games of backyard cricket, food on the barbie and th...

Holiday job

Teenager Katherine Irvine, pictured in February 1987, worked in Wellington during the school holidays serving ice creams and milkshakes. The long summer holiday can leave teenagers bored and broke....

Family barbecue

Family barbecue

The old problem of getting the charcoal barbecue going. More smoke than heat to start with ! My brother and brother-in-law trying to get some heat out of the BBQ. My nephew in the sandpit. Tomatoes...

Mountaineers warned about dangerous summer season

Mountaineers warned about dangerous summer season

The Mountain Safety Council is nervously awaiting the summer climbing season, which is notorious for tragedy.

Children at Wilton school taking off for the Christmas holidays

Children at Wilton school taking off for the Christmas holidays

Children at Wilton School race across the playground on their way to the Christmas holidays. In the background teacher Mrs O Dohig looks on. Photographed by an Evening Post staff photographer on ...

Record low holiday road toll

Record low holiday road toll

A record low of six road deaths over the Christmas and New Year holiday is encouraging, but more hard work is needed.

Surf lifeboat crew

Surf lifeboat crew

Surf lifeboat crew in action at the Wellington Surf Lifesaving Championships. Photographed by Evening Post staff photographer Melanie Burford 13 March 1997. Quantity: 1 colour original negative(s...

UV levels in summer

Three main reasons why UV levels in New Zealand are high during summer.

The Beach

If charm were valued more highly in art, The Beach would be one of Dunedin’s most valuable paintings. Instead it is one of the best loved, a painting whose intimate scale and children’s book detail...

Summer days at Bethells Beach

Summer days at Bethells Beach

Group of children playing leap frog up the beach in a line. The girl in the fore ground is mid jump. Visible in the back ground are the beach and hills/islands.

Jandals

Jandals (rubber thongs), worn ubiquitously during the summer, are also of foreign origin – this time from Asia. The name, however, is authentically New Zealand.

Stormy weather: a wet summer holiday

Stormy weather: a wet summer holiday

This cartoon comments on the bad weather experienced by many campers during January 2012. In recent years there have been calls to shift the traditional January school holiday to February, when the...

Pohutukawa in flower

Pohutukawa in flower

The more normal flower colour in a planting of this species along tree way. Guess it is now official - summer has finally made its way to Tamaki Makaurau

Summer, bummer, hummer

Summer, bummer, hummer

Shows two men giving their opinions about the great summer of 2007-2008. A farmer sweats with heat and anxiety and declares the summer a 'bummer' and a holiday maker sunbathes in his deckchair and ...

Orari Gorge, summer

Orari Gorge, summer

Painting of the Orari Gorge in summer by Austen Deans.

Summer sounds

What are the sounds of a Kiwi summer?

Sounds of summer

Sounds of summer

The sound of late summer in Taranaki New Zealand.

Indian summer

Cartoon referring to New Zealand’s high rate of skin cancer.

Policeman wearing summer helmet

Policeman wearing summer helmet

Policeman wearing summer helmet photographed in 1950 by an Evening Post photographer. Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s). Physical Description: Dry plate glass negative 3.25 x 4.25 inches

Summer

Frances Hodgkins valued this work highly – it was one of the more expensive in her Australian and New Zealand exhibitions. But at £60 in Melbourne it did not sell, nor when reduced to £42 in Sydney...

Boy eating ice cream

Boy eating ice cream

Boy eating ice cream at Oriental bay, Wellington. Photograph taken ca 7 December 1996 by Juley Van Der Reyden. Quantity: 1 colour original photographic print(s). Physical Description: Dye couple...

Picnic while haymaking

Picnic while haymaking

Series: Infant reading pictures. School Publications Branch, Department of Education. 1957.

Advertisement on the back of a bus

Advertisement on the back of a bus

Buses have been another site for inventive advertising. This advertisement for Trumpet ice creams was an Axis competition winner for Colenso in 2006. When the image was posted on the Flickr website...

Bach and dinghy, South Island east coast

Bach and dinghy, South Island east coast

Bach and dinghy, South Island east coast, photographed in late 1984 or early 1985 by Paul Thompson. Publication note - Published in: Paul Thompson, The bach (Wellington: Government Printer, 1985) ...

New Zealand recreation: baches

New Zealand recreation: baches

View of a row of brightly-coloured baches on the edge of a body of water.

Smiles for the Day

Summer Karaka berry crops

Baxter’s lung preserver

Advertisement for ‘Baxter’s,’ a summer cold remedy.

Oriental Parade

Oriental Parade

cibachrome 417 x 613 mm - Brian Brake is New Zealand's most celebrated photo-journalist and his images have been published in such prestigious journals as National Geographic, Paris-Match and Life...

Through the 20th century most New Zealanders’ summer vacations involved a camping holiday.

Garden annual

New Zealand was a land of keen gardeners and vegetable growers. In the 1950s before the widespread introduction of supermarkets, many people grew their own vegetables and fruit. Some would have use...

The Summer Olympics is held every four years in different cities around the world, with the aim of bringing nations together in peace to celebrate sport.

St Heliers beach, Auckland

St Heliers beach, Auckland

Fish and chips, ice cream, barbecues and sunbathing on the beach are a popular way to pass the time during summer. This photograph taken in 1968 of St Heliers beach in Auckland shows people enjoyin...

New Zealand summer

New Zealand summer

BEACH OF THE MT MAUNGANUI, TAURANGA, NEW ZEALAND Mount Maunganui is a coastal resort town and beach city in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, located on a peninsula to the north of Tauranga.

When and what is the summer solstice?

Provides information about the summer solstice.

Animated lesson with fun exercises about the four seasons.

Life on the farm

This link from DairyNZ explores changes that occur on a farm during New Zealand’s four seasons.

A gallery of items related to summer activities.

Best summer hikes

Nothing beats a Kiwi summer and getting away from civilisation.

Summer wonderland

Ronan Keating and Julian Dennison serve up a Kiwi summer song.

Why are there seasons?

Video explaining why we have seasons.

BBQ safety outside your home.

A guide to sun protection and outdoor work.

Frozen ’In Summer‘ song

Song about summer from the movie Frozen.

Summer in the archives

Images relating to Kiwi summers.

Bach at Te Hatepe

Bach at Te Hatepe

Summer in a bach beside the sea was a very Kiwi pastime last century. The number of baches has fallen since this colour photograph was taken in the mid-1980s. At this time people began to realise b...

Advertisement on the back of a bus

Summer Christmas

Summer Christmas

In this cartoon a mother and child at a beach are sitting under a pohutukawa tree. This tree is also known as the New Zealand Christmas tree as its red flowers bloom at Christmas. As New Zealand is...

Sandflies

In summer, when the air is hot and sticky, insects are everywhere. The blackfly, known in New Zealand as the sandfly, are among these insects. Although sandflies are year round creatures, their bus...

Summer surprise

Summer surprise

New Zealand’s unique environment makes us vulnerable to damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays. During summer people are strongly advised to ‘slip, slop and slap’ sun block on to protect themselves against...

Corsets

Corsets were an essential part of a woman’s wardrobe till the early 1900s. Made with materials such as lace, whalebone and metal, corsets were designed to mould a woman’s body into a ‘V’ shape by c...

The four seasons and what it means for Māori.

Let's learn about the four seasons

Learn about what causes the different seasons, and what's special about each one.

The secret life of the singing cicada

Discover summer in New Zealand

Article about summer in New Zealand.

Everything you need to know about being safe in the sun.

What causes seasons?

How does the tilt of the Earth’s axis influence the seasons?

Quotes about summer

A collection of quotes about summer.

‘Summertime’ by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong.

Summer beach safety

Tips on how to stay safe at the beach during summer.

Summer solstice

Information to help you understand the summer solstice.

A gallery of images related to summer.

Stay safe on your summer tramping adventures

A wicked kiwi summer

Activities relating to a kiwi summer, including sun and beach safety.

50 summer science ideas

A collection of summer science experiments.

Summer poem: bed In summer

A summer poem by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Seasons for New Zealand grown produce

Includes information about fruit grown during the different seasons, including summer.

Science made easy – summer

All you ever need to know about the summer season.

How do animals and plants prepare for the seasons?

Lesson plan on how animals and plants prepare for the seasons.

Call to shift the school holidays to February

Why is it hot in summer and cold in winter?

Article explaining why it’s hot in summer and cold in winter.

The Swim Reaper

Don’t swim dumb, stay safe around water and the Swim Reaper won’t get you.

Why are UV levels high in New Zealand summer?

Three main reasons why UV levels in New Zealand during summer are higher than at equivalent latitude in the northern hemisphere during its summer.