By Helen Baxter

Whether you prefer to spend your time indoors or outside there are plenty of oppotunities to kick back, dance the night away or be creatively inspired this summer in New Zealand.  

Don't forget to keep an eye on the Big Idea for local performances & events, festivals and workshops, seminars & progammes in the Opportunity Navigator. By Helen Baxter

Whether you prefer to spend your time indoors or outside there are plenty of oppotunities to kick back, dance the night away or be creatively inspired this summer in New Zealand.  

Don't forget to keep an eye on the Big Idea for local performances & events, festivals and workshops, seminars & progammes in the Opportunity Navigator.NZ Live.com has links to live events, exhibitions, festivals, sport, recreation, heritage and Maori, Pasific & Asian cultural activities. The most popular tags are concert, gigs, family fun and it's a good place to start planning your summer. Artists Alliance has a round up of arts related activities by region with New Zealand previews & exhibitions, and Dance Aotearoa New Zealand has a diary of dance events and opportunities. Eventfinder lets you search for events, artists, venues, and competitions, plus the New Zealand.com events calendar covers arts & culture, music, nature & outdoors, sports, wine & food

The beautiful Northland region has an events guide as does Destination Northland and Tourism NZ. For events in New Zealand's biggest city View Auckland has a comprehensive list, as does the council's What's on Events, and the Big City portal. Go for a picnic in your local park, with free summer concerts in Auckland, or join the Waitakere Sounds series in West Auckland parks.

Arts Coromandel is a comprehensive portal for arts & crafts in the Coromandel region with upcoming events for the next three months. Hamilton Events tells you what's on in the Waikato, with Tauranga City events covering the Bay of Plenty. There is music, markets and a Mardi Gras in Rotorua this holiday season. Lake Taupo has summer races, and a medieval festival. Palmeston North promises a young heart & easy living, with Napier offering a Techno Roller Dance Party for New Year's Eve and Gisbourne a series of Twilight Surf-ski swims.

Feeling Great is Wellington's guide to recreation and events, with courses & classes to unleash your creativity, get fit or learn something new in facilities & venues in and around the capital city. The Wellington summer events calendar includes beach volleyball and concerts in the Botanic Gardens.

Moving onto South Island and Visit Picton has a list of events in the Malborough region, and for festivals in the Nelson area check the E-vents Nelson Tasman calendar. Golden Bay has an intriguingly named Naked Possum Rata Festival to celebrate the flowering of the native Rata forests in the area.

West Coast NZ guides you through what's on around the towns of the west coast, and Be There has events across the cultural and culinary calendar in Christchurch. The Queenstown summer events are heavy on sport which is only to be expected of New Zealand's adrenaline capital. The Dunedin summer festival season promises summer fun, and you can celebrate a traditional Hogmanay this year in Invercargill.

Party animals will find the the Mukuna Gig Guide useful with listings for live music lovers of all genres in Auckland & Wellington. Find news on upcoming music events at Cheese On Toast, and for those who enjoy dancing with their hands in the air then NZ Rave and Biggie bring you a lineup of club nights across the country.

Kidspot has a list of places to go for familiy activities and fun, as does Kids Friendly NZ which also suggests suitable accommodation. Some libraries also have summer reading activites for children, and Four Corners has a choice of festivals for all ages. The surf season looks full this year with Surfing NZ listing places to watch some of the world's best surfers catch waves from Piha to Christchurch.

If the weather isn't great then you can check out the summer TV schedules for TVNZ, TV3, C4, Prime, Maori TV, Alt TV & Triangle TV brodcasts in Auckland and Wellington. Tune your radio into Kiwi Fm for 100% New Zealand Music, and Radio New Zealand, National & Concert have a special season of local programmes over the summer.

For indie sounds the bNet brings you the best of student radio over the summer break. Radio 1 is the station to tune in to if you are looking for summer sounds in Dunedin. Radio Control will be broadcasting in Palmeston North, and RDU can give you the cue for gigs in Christchurch. Radio Active will be on the airwaves in Wellington and of course 95 Bfm will be broadcasting in Auckland.

Whatever you get up to over the holidays, have fun, be creative and we'll look forward to seeing
you back here at the Big Idea in 2009.