Aurora Tamariki Early Years Care

We are closed for a Snow Day today.

For many tamariki this will be their first real snow experience so get out there and enjoy it and we look forward to seeing the photos afterwards!

🌿 Congratulations to Otago Community Hospice! ☀️

A huge congratulations to the team at Otago Community Hospice on winning The Good Energy Project. What a wonderful cause to benefit from reduced operating costs. We know the new solar installation will serve your organisation and our wider community for many years to come.

We'd also like to sincerely thank Think Solar Dunedin for creating this initiative. It has been inspiring to see so many community organisations sharing their stories and dreaming about what renewable energy could make possible.

To everyone who voted for Aurora, shared our posts, picked up a Wonder Wander booklet, or simply encouraged us along the way—thank you. We deeply appreciate the support we've experienced from our whānau and the wider community.

While we weren't the winning organisation this time, our vision hasn't changed. We still dream of harnessing Te Rā to help reduce our impact on Te Ao Tūroa and strengthen Aurora for generations of tamariki to come. This opportunity has reaffirmed our commitment to making Aurora Tamariki the most environmentally sustainable organisation we can.

Congratulations once again to Otago Community Hospice, and thank you to everyone who helped make this such a positive community campaign.

Ngā mihi nui. 💛

☀️ 24 hours to go.

Tomorrow, voting closes in The Good Energy Project.

Over the past few weeks we've shared a dream that has lived in Aurora's strategic plan for many years—a dream of harnessing Te Rā to help nurture generations of tamariki while reducing our impact on Te Ao Tūroa.

We've also had the joy of creating our Wonder Wander, sharing stories from our kindergarten, and connecting with so many people who care deeply about children, community and the natural world.

If you've already voted, thank you. Your encouragement has meant the world to us.

If you've been following along but haven't quite found a moment yet, we'd be incredibly grateful if today could be that day.

🗳️ Vote here: https://thinksolar.co.nz/dunedin/the-good-energy-project/

And if you know someone who loves Aurora, believes in community, or simply wants to support a small registered charity with a big dream, we'd be so grateful if you'd share this post with them too.

Thank you for walking alongside us. Whatever tomorrow brings, we're already feeling incredibly supported by this wonderful community.

Ngā mihi nui. 💛🌿

Was fun to see people out and about at the gardens on this glorious winters day.

🌿 This weekend a little adventure is waiting...

If you're visiting the Dunedin Botanical Garden this weekend, you can now pick up a free printed Aurora Wonder Wander from Aster, the new cafe in the gardens.

Created as a little gift for our community, this fold-it-yourself pocket zine invites whānau to explore the Gardens in a whole new way. Follow rhyming clues, solve riddles, uncover the secrets of ancient technology, search for giant treasures, and discover the many gifts of Te Rā—the winter sun.

We hope it encourages families to slow down, play together, and perhaps notice something they might otherwise have walked past.

☀️ Pick up a free copy from the café, or download it from our previous post.

📸 If you head out on a Wonder Wander, we'd love to see where your adventure takes you. Share your photos in the comments or tag Aurora Tamariki so we can enjoy them too!

This is also the final weekend of voting in The Good Energy Project.

🗳️ Vote here: https://thinksolar.co.nz/dunedin/the-good-energy-project/

Whatever happens when voting closes on Tuesday, we're really glad this campaign inspired us to create something that families can enjoy these school holidays. We hope the Wonder Wander leads to many happy adventures in one of Dunedin's most beautiful places.

If you'd like to help one more dream along its way, we'd be incredibly grateful for your vote.

Ngā mihi nui, and happy wandering. 💛🌿

🌿 A little gift from Aurora for the school holidays...

If you're looking for a free family adventure these holidays, we've made something especially for the Dunedin community.

✨ The Aurora Tamariki Wonder Wander is a fold-it-yourself pocket zine that transforms a visit to the Botanic Garden into a journey of discovery.

Follow rhyming clues to hidden places, solve riddles, search for giant treasures, uncover the secrets of ancient technology, step into another world, and discover the many gifts of Te Rā—the winter sun.

Along the way you'll be invited to play, imagine, notice and wonder together.

Inspired by our love of the Dunedin Botanic Garden, this little adventure is designed for curious tamariki aged 3–12, with extra invitations for older children, teenagers and adults to explore alongside them.

☀️ Download it, print it, fold it... and head off on your own Wonder Wander!

If your whānau enjoys the adventure, we'd love to see your photos! Tag Aurora Tamariki or share your favourite discovery in the comments.

And if you'd like to support the work we do, we'd be incredibly grateful if you'd also cast a vote for Aurora in The Good Energy Project.

🗳️ Vote here:
https://thinksolar.co.nz/dunedin/the-good-energy-project/

Every vote helps bring us one step closer to our long-held dream of harnessing Te Rā to help power Aurora for generations of tamariki to come.
Ngā mihi nui, and happy wandering! 🌿💛

🌿☀️

Today, we're especially grateful to everyone who has already voted and to our early supporters—thank you for helping carry this kaupapa forward.

If you haven't voted yet, we'd be so grateful for your support. And if you do vote, please share the link with 5 people so we can spread the word even further.

☀️ Vote here:
https://thinksolar.co.nz/dunedin/the-good-energy-project/

Voting closes 22 July.

Earth who gives to us this food,
Sun who makes it ripe and good,
Dear Earth, dear Sun, by whom we live,
Our loving thanks to you we give.

At Aurora, seasonal rhythms and reverence for the natural world lie at the heart of our Steiner Waldorf curriculum.

Whether through song, blessing, gardening, harvesting, or sharing kai together, we seek to nurture a deep sense of gratitude for the gifts of Te Ao Tūroa and an awareness that we are part of something much greater than ourselves.

As we continue weaving te ao Māori through all that we do, we've found beautiful points of connection. Our mealtime blessings sit alongside karakia kai, each inviting us to pause, give thanks, and acknowledge the many seen and unseen gifts that nourish us.

These quiet moments remind us that caring for the earth begins with learning to notice it, appreciate it, and receive its gifts with gratitude.

It's this spirit of reverence and kaitiakitanga that continues to guide Aurora's sustainability journey—and one of the reasons the opportunity to bring solar energy to our kindergarten means so much to us.

Ngā mihi nui for walking alongside us. 💛

❄️☀️ The gifts of the winter sun

☀️ Vote here:
https://thinksolar.co.nz/dunedin/the-good-energy-project/

Voting closes 22 July.

The winter sun hits differently.

Its warmth may be gentle but its light is bright and clear. Mornings greet us with frosty grass and icy puddles, yet even in the heart of winter, Te Rā brings us inner warmth, colour and hope.

This week has been perfect for creating frost paintings—wet-on-wet watercolour paintings laid gently on the frosty ground, where tiny ice crystals transformed each one into something unique.

*The sunlight streams into each day, *
*And sends the dark night away. *
*It brings the colors to my eyes, *
*The bright green earth, the deep blue skies. *
*The yellow sun, the red, red rose, *
*That in the gentle garden grows. *
*So on my paper let it be, *
Sunlight and water, joyfully!

-Michael Seifert

At Aurora, we are continually reminded that the sun offers us so much. It drys our laundry, marks the rhythm of our seasons, ripens our harvests, and fills our days with light and beauty.

As we continue our journey through The Good Energy Project, we're reminded that perhaps the sun could offer one more gift—helping to sustain Aurora for generations of tamariki to come.

If you'd like to support that dream, we'd be so grateful for your vote.

☀️ Vote here:
https://thinksolar.co.nz/dunedin/the-good-energy-project/

Voting closes 22 July.

Wishing you moments of winter sunshine wherever you are. 💛

🌿 A journey of many small steps...

☀️ Vote here:
https://thinksolar.co.nz/dunedin/the-good-energy-project/

Voting closes 22 July.

At Aurora, caring for Te Ao Tūroa isn't a project that began with this competition.

It's a journey we've been walking for many years.

A few years ago, as we reflected on our sustainability journey, we wrote:

"We are continually dreaming up ways, both micro and radical, that could improve our practices... We have committed to pursuing them all as we are able."

That still feels like a reflection of who we are.

Every day, our tamariki experience a kindergarten where practical acts of care are woven into the rhythm of life. We compost, garden, mend, reuse, and make thoughtful choices about the resources we use. These aren't simply sustainable practices—they're opportunities for children to grow into a culture of active respect for the natural world, empowered to see themselves as kaitiaki. From Auroras inception these values have been embedded in our everyday rhythms and systems.

Over the years, we've imagined many ways to deepen this work. Some ideas have been small and immediately achievable. Others have been more ambitious and have had to wait until the time was right.

Adding solar power has been one of those long-held dreams.

As a small registered charity, it has simply been beyond our reach. But we've never stopped believing it was worth working towards.

Being selected as a finalist in The Good Energy Project feels like an opportunity to take the next step on a journey that is already well underway.

If our story resonates with you, we'd be deeply grateful for your support.

☀️ Vote for Aurora here:
https://thinksolar.co.nz/dunedin/the-good-energy-project/

Voting closes 22 July.

Thank you for helping us nurture children who care deeply for each other, for Te Ao Tūroa, and for the future we are growing together. 💛