Once upon a time there was a Father who had Seven children. He had four boys: Lucas, Jimmy, Noah, and Magnus; and his daughters were: Olivia, Daniel, and James. Yes, it was slightly unusual having boys names for girls (Noah was the youngest and Daniel was the oldest).

Their father liked to make things that flew, so he made a kite with bright torches that were powered by the sun with solar panels. He also made seven other kites so his sons and daughters could use one each.

It was summer, so it was not that windy, so they went to their favorite hill that was usually breezy on the top. When they got there there wasn't any wind. They sat there for a long time until it got dark. When the sun set, Magnus turned on the solar powered torches and Daniel tied the kites to their favorite tree and they fell asleep.

In the middle of the night a breeze came up, lifting all the kites into the air. The knot that Daniel had tied wasn't very good, so the kites all started untying themselves. Noah woke up from his sleep with a start, and was just in time to see the kites start to fly away with the bright torches attached to them. He quickly tried to wake up all his brothers and sisters, yelling. “ Wake up, the kites are flying away! ”

The others were too tired to wake up, so Noah just gave up - but he was happy to be able to just watch them rising into the sky. Soon they were not able to be seen anymore. Noah was sad in the morning when they were all going home. He told them that the kites had fled away in the middle of the night, so they sadly told their father the bad news. But he wasn't angry, he was happy and said “It's okay, at least we can still see them in the night sky every year.” The kids were confused and didn't understand then their father said “ The solar powered torches will be able to be seen up in the sky when it is charged by the sun on the 24th June every year. ”

And now from that day, every year the kids look up in the sky and see their solar-powered kites and that's why we celebrate Matariki every year.